We all brush our teeth twice a day (hopefully), but have you ever considered how toothpaste tubes affect the environment?
Despite the efforts of some manufacturers to produce entirely recyclable tubes, the majority of toothpaste tubes are made of non-recyclable material and end up in landfills.
We’re getting better at eliminating plastic waste, and certain single-use products, such as straws, have been outlawed in a number of countries.
Unfortunately, when it comes to toothpaste, we’re always behind.
Globally, 1.5 billion toothpaste tubes end up in landfill a year, with the plastic in those tubes taking 500 years to decay.
In the UK alone if we spread every toothpaste tube used each year-end to end, it would come to about 75,000KM almost twice round the earth.
The problem is that toothpaste tubes are usually made of different types of plastics, and many brands contain a metal layer inside the tube which isn’t easy to separate.
This means that brushing your teeth every day adds significantly to the amount of plastic in landfills and oceans, but we can’t stop brushing our teeth, so what can we do?