Our Health. Our Planet.
Plastic waste is a huge problem. Everyday plastic products such as bottles, bags, and packaging languishes in landfill and pollutes our oceans.
But the problem with plastic comes at the end of its life. Plastic doesn’t break down. Instead, it breaks up, into smaller and smaller pieces, called microplastics. Some microplastics are so small, they’re invisible to the naked eye.
It’s estimated that there are 51 trillion pieces of plastic and microplastic in the world’s oceans and that number is only set to rise!
It’s thought that every single piece of plastic ever produced, still exists in one form or another. Whether in our homes, in landfill, in the ocean or recycled or repurposed into something else.
The majority of toothbrushes are made from plastic, and dental floss is usually coated in plastic. Most toothpastes are in plastic tubes, and mouthwashes are usually in plastic bottles.
If each one of us changed our toothbrush four times a year, that’s 320 each in a lifetime. There’s around 67 million people living in the UK, so that’s potentially 268 million toothbrushes sent to landfill each year. From the UK alone.