Not only wooden toothbrushes: the green trend in oral care

The green trend is spreading in every industry due to consumers’ and companies’ increased attention to environmental issues and problems linked to pollution caused by plastics. Oral care is just one area in which the need for sustainable choice is urgent, as—just in the U.S.—using plastic leads to almost fifty million pounds of nonbiodegradable waste annually. In this article, we want to talk about the possible eco-friendly alternatives to plastic objects in the oral care sector.

Wooden toothbrushes & more to make dental hygiene greener

When you think about sustainable options in the oral care industry, you first think of wooden toothbrushes. Plastic toothbrushes are actually the most common objects we use in our daily routine that could be easily replaced by an eco-friendly alternative. If designed the right way, wooden toothbrushes can be not only a sustainable choice but also a glamourous and more comfortable one. It is true that people are increasingly looking for ecological products, but they want them to be beautiful and functional too. One of the greatest advantages of wood is that even the most common variety provides a sense of elegance and prestige.

This characteristic is particularly appreciated by people who care about home decor and design and are willing to pay more for a good-looking and decorative object to display in their bathroom. Special finishes, which must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the agency that supervises product safety for people, can be applied on wooden toothbrushes to make them water-repellent and beautiful. They also make them more hygienic, avoiding the proliferation of bacteria and moulds. All these benefits differentiate wooden toothbrushes from plastic ones, as the latter are generally standardized, not decorative and are more prone to mould than wooden toothbrushes.

People use other nonsustainable objects in their daily dental care routine that could be substituted with nonplastic alternatives to make them greener, safer, and more hygenic. Hence, you should offer them in your catalogue.

One example is interdentals—the little brushes designed for cleaning between the teeth. The most common ones are made of plastic. Considering that a person must change its interdental brush at least every two weeks, a large amount of plastic is thrown away each month. The most innovative interdental brushes can be made of wood, helping to considerably reduce using nonbiodegradable materials. In this way, you can get the same advantages of wooden toothbrushes not only in terms of sustainability and design but also from the point of view of hygiene and resistance to moulds. 

Toothpicks must be included in the oral care field, too, as they are often used to clean teeth after meals. To guarantee maximum safety, it is important that these are smooth with no splinters so as not to injure someone’s lips, mouth, or fingers. It is fundamental that your supplier ensure strict quality control over products to avoid any possible problems.

Finally, when considering sustainability in the oral care industry, one must also pay attention to the production process. Choosing a sustainable material, such as wood, for your oral care products catalogue is the first important step to demonstrate to your clients your concern for environmental protection and reducing plastic pollution. However, if the manufacturing company you select does not pay attention to sustainability in its production process, your efforts will be wasted. When choosing the best supplier, you must first verify that it responds to the standards and regulations imposed by international associations. The most important is the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), which guarantees that the raw material comes from responsibly managed forests. EUTR 995 and the Lacey Act are fundamental, too, as they prevent trading of illegal timber in Europe and the USA respectively.

Another point to evaluate is logistics. Transporting products has a great environmental impact due to the pollution caused by vehicle emissions. To reduce them, some companies try to have their production plants located where the raw material is gathered to limit the distance they must go for production.

Finally, recycling and reusing discarded materials is particularly important. Some manufacturers use waste materials to fuel their heating systems or create new products. This practice demonstrates great attention to responsible energy usage, which should be appreciated today.

If you are looking for a partner that can guarantee top-quality wooden toothbrushes and oral care products, respecting all the rules and standards dictated by the market in terms of safety, hygiene, and sustainability, Minelli S.p.A can help you. Thanks to our decennial expertise in the timber sector, we can support you in creating successful products in line with market trends and customers’ preferences. Click here to contact us!