Until recently, I’m ashamed to admit, I hadn’t really thought all that much about my use of plastic. I’d leave tote bags at home on shopping trips and happily pay for a plastic bag, telling myself that reusing the bag was “doing the right thing” How wrong I was! Like many people, I love watching Blue Planet, and seeing so many habitats destroyed by our plastic use just shook me.
Looking back, it’s something I should have been more aware of a long time ago.
A couple of years back, I took a trip to Vietnam. While there, we visited the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ha Long Bay. It’s a stunning location with thousands limestone islands cropping up out of the blue waters. I remember looking so forward to being able to swim there… but you can’t. The water is teeming with rubbish and just so, so much plastic. A couple on our tour started collecting rubbish from the water in their kayak in an attempt to help clean it up – that’s how bad it was. It was so upsetting to see what we’d done to such an incredible place.
Thankfully, shows like Blue Planet, have helped educate the public about the dangers of single-use plastic. Which is such a development. I have to say though, I had never really thought about that item we use – or at least should use! – twice daily… the toothbrush.
Every three months I’d throw out my old plastic toothbrush in favour of a new plastic toothbrush, never really thinking that this innocuous item would be adding to the growing piles of plastic rubbish. That was until I saw this picture from Greenpeace…
I discovered we throw away more than 5 billion toothbrushes worldwide – and a large percentage of these end up in our oceans. It’s outrageous.
So, resolved to change my habits, I did some research and stumbled across Bam & Boo. The Bam & Boo toothbrush is made of 95% renewable sources and is 95% biodegradable. The bristles being the 5% that is not biodegradable.
In all honesty, when I placed my first order for the bamboo toothbrush, I wasn’t holding out much hope for it being a good substitute for a regular toothbrush. I was so used to the main brand toothbrushes with their fancy features – electric, floss-tip brushes – that I just didn’t think something so simple would be, well… effective.
I’m happy to report, I was wrong.
I love my new toothbrush! It does the job just superbly, and I can rest easy knowing I’m not creating any unnecessary plastic waste. I’d say that’s a big win.
Bam & Boo offer a subscription service where they’ll send you a new toothbrush every 3 months. So you don’t even have to think about placing a new order when your old toothbrush gets a little scraggy. Perfect for the unorganised like me!
If you are looking for an eco-alternative to keeping your pearly whites clean, I couldn’t recommend Bam & Boo more.
