#plasticfreejuly Day 12

Day 12: Toothbrushes

Can you imagine every single toothbrush ever produced is still out there somewhere? More than likely polluting our beaches or just laying around in a landfill for a bajillion more years.

We're told from a young age that we need to replace our toothbrushes every three months. So let's break that down:

327 million people in the United States (According to the US Census)

80 years (Average life expectancy)

4 toothbrushes a year

Dentist recommend brushing a baby's at about two years old, so I'll change the number of years to 78.

78 x 4 = 312 toothbrushes used per person

327,000,000 x 312 = 102,024,000,000 used toothbrushes

Woo! That's a lot of plastic. 

Most toothbrushes you find at your local grocery store are made of plastic and nylon bristles. Look for eco-friendly alternatives like bamboo brushes that can be compost once their life mission is done. There's also some made of recycled plastic that you can collect and send back for recycling AGAIN! Or even consider a brush with replaceable brush heads. Hey, if you're not dumping and replacing the whole thing it's a step in the right direction.

We made the switch to bamboo!