Green teeth

Last night at Target I purchased a new toothbrush, which is normally nothing to write home about or blog about for that matter, but this is no regular toothbrush. This is a Preserve® toothbrush, made by Recycline, is probably the greenest product you can buy to put in your mouth, but I didn’t know it at the time.

In the aisle of 1000’s of assorted toothbrushes, I was drawn to the clean packaging of the Preserve and mainly to the plain lovely eggshell white – no neon bristles or bright pink plasticy ticklers, just a clean soft all-white brush & handle (Preserve offers plenty of other fun colors) with a lovely ergonomic bend to it. It seemed like a mod take on the classic 60s, dentist-style, iconic toothbrush. Good, simple design. Standing in the aisle, I was already excited to see it looking poshly mod in my bathroom. That’s all it took. SOLD.

After we’d unpacked all the groceries, I took a 2nd look at this new brush. Little did I know all the wonders it had in store! Here are its amazing features, which I didn’t even spark to in the dental aisle.

1) the handle is made from recycled plastic!!! Mostly from yogurt cups (through a partnership with Stonyfield Farms!) which are often not recyclable. Cool!

2) the little clear plastic box/tube that it comes in, is made from plastics derived from sustainable wood forests AND is designed with a replaceable cap AND venting holes so you can use it as a toothbrush holder when you are traveling!!! No wasted packaging. So smart!

3) the slip of paper inside the box/tube explaining all of this, is formerly recycled and newly printed with enviro-safe inks. Naturally!

4) if you want, once you’ve brushed your toofers enough, you can send your used brush back to Recycline and they will make your toothbrush into plastic park benches! No way! That’s thinking it through from start to finish.

Now I know that toothbrushes aren’t the main hogs of landfills, nor are they an uber-disposable item since most folks use one for a few months, but as far as using materials and thinking of smart design… I think the Preserve toothbrush deserves a shout out.