If you're still using plastic bags, bottles, toys and so on...

[Nicos]

I bought these for peeps as Xmas pressies

Google Image Result for http://shop.wwf.org.uk/images/products/070727.jpg

[piskieinboots]

The thought of a wooden toothbrush has set my teeth off squirming - eewww

[Two_Sheds]

my girlfriend and her mum have some bags that fold down to about the size of a ...pack of cards

Most supermarkets sell them now, in cotton (although cotton uses loads of water & chemicals in its growth & production)

I make mine out of old upholstery fabric. They fold up really small & I keep them rolled up in my bag or a pocket. They get washed about once a month, probably less

[Patchninja]

The price of those wooden toothbrushes is ridiculous. If people want to sell me something green, then put a realistic price on it.

[Two_Sheds]

But wood IS dearer than plastic. Those toothbrushes aren't going to have a huge market either, so they will be more expensive than plastic ones which are made by cheap Chinese labour.

I can't remember the last time I threw away a toothbrush. Ours last 6 months or so I reckon (cleaned daily, and sterilised in Milton if I remember). They then go in the cleaning cupboard for scrubbing bike parts, cleaning shoes, round taps etc.

[piskieinboots]

...and sterilised in Milton if I remember).

Really? Blimey! I can't say I've ever thought of doing that

[Nicos]

I use milton from time to time too!
when you think that the brush has been in your mouth and left to the air for several hours- maybe visited by the odd fly- and maybe someone else in the family has accidentally used the wrong one!

....it all adds to the potential of gum disease!

[piskieinboots]

hum, mine aren't 'in the air' - I use an electric brush which has a case thingy which allows for drying but I doubt a fly would get in - and I change them every 3 months

and we eat more flies down the lottie I reckon

[organic]

Piskie - I can't understand why you'd be squeamish about a wooden toothbrush. Maybe I'm missing something but it's not like it'd be full of splinters or something like that. As I see it they'd be really smooth and probably shiny to start off with and if you're replacing them every 3 months and look after it, I'm not sure I see what would change that. If there was a good finish on it rather than bare wood it'd be even less wood-like feeling more like plastic in the mouth but without any of the drawbacks.


Two_Sheds - Nice job on that bag! (Assuming it's yours, of course.) For some reason I thought normal fabric would make for a really bulky bag but apparently not.
There's always Organic cotton - much better for't environment. Hemp? Bamboo?
I can't see the supermarkets using those in a hurry (and no wonder - I looked into getting some organic cotton a while back - you couldn't accuse it of trying to break into the mass market with prices like that) but they have potential.


Patchninja
The now-pretty-much-dead supermarket price wars and the preponderance of cheap, throwaway plastic goods made by a labour force with no rights at all has given people a pretty warped idea of what constitutes a good price for pretty much everything but food (and including food to many extents).
For some reason I still can't open that wooden toothbrush page. I see the page banner and a rew bits on the left but other than tha the page is completely blank - but I'm pretty sure I saw a price tag of about £3 mentioned somewhere.
That said - really just how much difference does the price of a wooden toothbrush make when compared to the plastic environmental tragedies we usually get? You'd be hard pushed to buy a pint of quality ale with the difference. Spread over 3 months a £3.5 price tag is 3.3p a day... and a plastic one isn't going to be all that much cheaper.
I think we need to be prepared to redefine our ideas of what constitutes realistic... it's so bad now that most people seem to think that washing a bin once a week and giving it the odd wipe here and there, hardly a chore, is not only unrealistic but disgusting and so that means we need to dump unimaginably large volumes of plastic into landfill (and some of it will get to the sea) instead. Apparently it's so bad that in increase in price that's so small even the poorest would be hard pushed to notice it over the space of 3 months it enough to warrant using plastic toothbrushes with all the horrendous environmental implications that they carry.
Strange when you look at it like that, isn't it.

[organic]

Oh and on the sterilising front - persnally I'm not sure I'd bother. All the bacteria that would be on your brush exists naturally in the mouth anyway - and in quantities so large that there are still millions of the things in there even if you've just given it a good scrubbing, flossing and rinsing.

I'm pretty dispassionate about bacteria. I don't go looking for ways to consume it, but on the other hand I figure it's pretty much unavoidable (and indeed it'd be unhealthy if it could be avoided) and since we're already crawling with other life forms already I can't see what's to gain.

That is unless... Nicos, is there some science or other that backs up the gum disease point or is that an "it just makes sense" point? There's nothing really wrong with that - but if there's a significant difference (backed up by studies/research ) made by sterilising it is something I would consider.

Cheers.

[Nicos]

Not got time to do much research today organic- but take a look at this ( not the source you're expecting!!!)
... maybe you can look into the researchers mentioned????
they're pretty sound facts about hep and heart probs etc

Danger of the humble toothbrush | Mail Online

[organic]

"I believe that in ten or 15 years we will all be regularly sterilising our toothbrushes, or using disposable ones." - Dr Idris

No.. no... NOOO!!!
Hasn't she read this thread? Disposables??? Undoubtably made from plastic???? AAARGH!



Interesting article there, Nicos. Some time next week I'll have a look into the studies behind it. I'd be really very interested to see something involving numbers to have a proper look and see if it really is a risk or not.
The Hep point seems solid - and a very good argument for toothbrush holders.
The rest of it has me wondering though.

If you just glance at the numbers in any study it can say one thing but viewed more widely it says another.
The example that springs to mind is bicycle helmet laws. With no desire to get into the pro and con of helmets here's what I mean.
Government mandates helmet use.
Number of cyclists with serious or fatal head injuries falls as a result.
Conclusion - riding unhelmeted is dangerous.
The wider view paints a different picture:
Government mandates helmet use.
Number of cyclists on the roads falls dramatically.
Number of head injuries per population / mile ridden / hour ridden increases.
Conclusion - fewer cyclists makes the remaining ones less safe and government helmet madates worsen the situation.

Unrelated, for sure, but I do wonder if something similar is at work here. Have any of the studies shown a greater incidence of heart disease, blood clots, weak immune systems or even hep in those who don't sterilise their toothbrush and keep them all together in a mug when compared to those who keep them separate and sterilise?

That's the bit that I'd like to know... not that I'd expect a newspaper would run such a story "Here's the numbers and it's too close to call" doesn't make for the kind of journalism that sells papers.

If I find anything of note next week I'll post it up so others can read it.

Intriguing thought though - thanks again for the article!

[Patchninja]

Organic, do you have any time to actually do any work?

By the way. What's your toothbrush made of? I would love to be able to afford about £5 per brush but can't!

[organic]

I work in my own office and I'm the boss so don't have to type secretly... and I type really quite quickly so it takes about as long to type as to think about it.

My current toothbrush is plastic - then came the awakening that plastic is an even bigger issue than I thought when I stopped using plastic bags - my next one will be wood. I'll let you know if I find one for a lower price anywhere.

Still, £20 a year in toothbrushes isn't a fortune. You'd blow through that with a couple of bottles of wine or a few decent ales. Drop in the ocean and all that (oh and for the record... I'm not loaded - I just had to count my coppers to pay for a repair on my bike and that was only £13).

[Two_Sheds]

No time to read links today but:

- I keep our toothbrushes far away from the toilet (flushing loo with lid up releases lots of germs into the air?)
- I sterilise anything I can think of when I am doing my wine bottles. I re-use the solution as much as possible