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9 Sustainable Toothbrushes Cleaning Your Pearly Whites & The Planet

Let’s talk teeth. 

More specifically, let’s talk about how we all need to make some serious improvements to our dental routine by switching to a sustainable toothbrush.

Brushing twice a day and using your zero waste floss every night might make your gums healthier, but what about our planet?

The average person uses 300 plastic toothbrushes in their lifetime, equating to billions of plastic sticks finding their way to landfills each year.

But a toothbrush is perhaps the most essential of all eco-friendly bathroom products. Mouth hygiene is connected to whole-body health—and that of our planet’s.

That’s why we’re taking a bite out of plastic dental care and diving into zero waste toothbrushes.

Everything we recommend to you on Sustainable Jungle is independently researched and we ask all brands to confirm their claims. To avoid waste, we test products on an as needed basis. This post contains affiliate links. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a small commission. Learn more about why we do this here.

Biting Into The Best Bamboo Toothbrushes

ZWS Essentials offers a zero waste wooden toothbrush with castor bean oil bristles which is, they say, backyard compostable—bristles and all.

For the most sustainable toothbrush offering, in our opinion, an unparalleled cleaning experience (think: 3 levels of intensity and up to 40 000 vibrations per minute) courtesy of it’s sonic technology, give Sustainable Tomorrow’s Zen Bamboo Electric Toothbrush a spin.

If you’re restocking on zero waste toothpaste, add some bamboo toothbrushes from Georganics. Their Zero To Landfill scheme makes it easy for UK customers to responsibly dispose of frayed bristles.

Pick your way to the end of the article to see what makes a toothbrush sustainable and how we picked these brush-worthy brands.

The Best Zero Waste & Eco Toothbrushes


1. Brush With Bamboo

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Images by Brush with Bamboo

Brush with Bamboo’s Zero Waste Toothbrushes

Brush with Bamboo’s eco toothbrushes for adults and kids come with bristles made of 100% castor bean oil.

While 100% biobased, they’ll break down more slowly than standard items in your home compost, so the bristles should still be removed using pliers before composting the handle.

In other words, they’re biodegradable, but not compostable.

Instead, recycle them through Terracycle, along with the aluminum staples.

Sustainably-harvested wild-grown Moso Bamboo is used for the handles, which is not one of the 42 bamboo species pandas eat—so no risk to pandas from your pearly whites!

The chemical-free non-plastic toothbrush bristles are made in the EU and the final product is responsibly made in China, at a factory overseen by a full-time American-managed on-the-ground team.

About Brush with Bamboo

Brush with Bamboo helped pave the way for eco-friendly oral care with “the world’s first and only plant-based toothbrush”—at the time, anyway.

Thankfully, they’re no longer the only maker of bamboo toothbrushes, but they remain one of the best eco-friendly toothbrush and eco-friendly hair brush brands.

Every claim BWB makes is backed by the necessary paperwork and certifications: vegan, FDA registered, USDA Biobased, and Green America certified.

Their packaging is an origami-folded cardboard box, which eliminates the need for tape. There is no inner wrapper, just a 100% paper box that is home compostable.


2. Sustainable Tomorrow

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Sustainable Tomorrow’s Eco-Friendly Toothbrushes

There’s little debate that the best kind of brush you can get comes with a little buzz.

In fact, a long-term study showed that after 11 years, people who used an electric toothbrush had significantly better oral health than those who used manual toothbrushes.

Sustainability and ultra-healthy teeth and gums don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

Instead of a plastic handle and plastic replacement heads, Sustainable Tomorrow’s electric toothbrushes are made of FSC-certified bamboo and castor bean oil bristles, which will break down in a compost pile in about 6 months.

We tested Sustainable Tomorrow’s sustainable toothbrush and the first thing we noticed was how comfortable and ergonomic the bamboo handle felt in our hand.

The electric functionality is super impressive too, with 3 levels of intensity and 5 cleaning modes delivering up to 40 000 vibrations per minute. We could not fault the thorough and efficient cleaning experience. And the small brush head gives it just that much more versatility to reach the back of the molars with.

We haven’t tested how efficient the rechargeable battery is but apparently it lasts up to 4 hours, which is far longer than its plastic counterparts. Otherwise, the built-in 2-minute timer, and its many adjustable settings, allows you to customize the brush – handy if you have sensitive teeth and gums.

Just be sure to look after this one to maximise it’s life and minimize it’s carbon footprint.

The optional Zen Bamboo Case is not only ideal for travel, but just keeping our bathroom looking neat and organized.

About Sustainable Tomorrow

Sustainable Tomorrow is working towards, well…their namesake.

Aside from designing modern dental solutions with sustainability in mind, they also offer a small handful of other everyday essentials, like an all-wood tech-free phone speaker that utilizes natural principles of sound acoustics to amplify your tunes so you can jam while getting ready.

Everything is packaged and shipped in biodegradable packaging.


3. EcoRoots

9 Zero Waste & Sustainable Toothbrushes Cleaning The Planet & Your Pearly Whites Images by EcoRoots #sustainabletoothbrushes #mostsustainabletoothbrush #sustainablebambootoothbrush #zerowastetoothbrush #bestzerowastetoothbrush #bambootoothbrushzerowaste #sustainablejungle
Images by EcoRoots

EcoRoots’s Eco-Friendly Toothbrushes USA

One billion plastic toothbrushes are disposed of every single year in the US and EcoRoots wants to reduce that number with their sustainable bamboo toothbrush

Certified vegan and cruelty-free, they bear a 100% compostable bamboo toothbrush handle that’s anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, and antimicrobial (all the things we want from something that goes in our mouth!). 

The recyclable toothbrush bristles are still made with soft nylon, but they’re BPA-free and non-toxic.

They’re also infused with activated charcoal for whitening benefits.

While that means this isn’t a plastic-free toothbrush option, you can remove the bristles and recycle them through TerraCycle. Then toss your toothbrush without bristles in the compost.

When it comes to sustainable packaging, toothbrush sets are shipped plastic-free

About EcoRoots

If EcoRoots sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve talked about them before when we scrubbed through some of our favorite zero waste cleaning brands and browsed around for the best ethical online shopping resources.

From tooth to toilet, they’re committed to helping customers fill their homes with things that aren’t plastic. 

The Colorado-based brand is certified cruelty-free by Leaping Bunny and ships everything plastic-free in only recyclable/compostable materials.  

To date, they’ve donated almost $15,000 to Ocean Conservancy.

Also available on Amazon


4. etee

9 Zero Waste & Sustainable Toothbrushes Cleaning The Planet & Your Pearly Whites Images by Sustainable Jungle #sustainabletoothbrushes #mostsustainabletoothbrush #sustainablebambootoothbrush #zerowastetoothbrush #bestzerowastetoothbrush #bambootoothbrushzerowaste #sustainablejungle
Images by Sustainable Jungle

etee’s Reusable Bamboo Toothbrushes Canada

One of our favorite sustainable electric toothbrush brands also happens to be behind some of the best bamboo toothbrushes.

Like their electric toothbrush, etee’s eco-friendly toothbrush is made of FSC-certified bamboo.

Each minimalist toothbrush handle is indefinitely reusable; all you need to order is replaceable heads, further minimizing waste.

The water-based paint on the bamboo toothbrush handle protects it from water damage, so you can use it for longer.

While the bristles are made of castor bean oil, etee warns that they’re not yet biodegradable toothbrushes, but assures customers they are working on a solution.

To compost the head, use a pair of pliers to remove the staple keeping the bristles in place and compost the head sans bristles.

About etee

From refillable cleaning products to clean dental essentials, Canadian zero waste brand etee is aiming to remove as much plastic from everyday items as possible.

They started with beeswax wraps and took flight from there.

Aside from the beeswax used in their refill pods and wraps, everything they sell is vegan, cruelty-free, 100% natural, plastic-free, and made using renewable energy.

etee gives back to the Mississauga Food Project and various medical clinics serving those in need.

etee has also featured in an article on bamboo electric toothbrushes.


5. ZWS Essentials

9 Zero Waste & Sustainable Toothbrushes Cleaning The Planet & Your Pearly Whites Images by Sustainable Jungle #sustainabletoothbrushes #mostsustainabletoothbrush #sustainablebambootoothbrush #zerowastetoothbrush #bestzerowastetoothbrush #bambootoothbrushzerowaste #sustainablejungle
Images by Sustainable Jungle

ZWS Essentials’ All-Natural Toothbrushes

The ZWS Essentials reusable bamboo toothbrush from ZeroWasteStore.com is one of the best 100% biodegradable toothbrushes around.

Why?

Because it’s the only 100% biodegradable one, period,

Made with a sustainably sourced bamboo toothbrush handle and plastic-free castor bean oil bristles, they claim these are backyard compostable toothbrushes.

However, we’ll be checking to see if they have any certifications to back that up because other castor bean oil bristles we’ve come across are found not to be home compostable.

Just be sure to use some pliers to remove the metal staples holding the bristles in place, which they recommend collecting and recycling.

About ZWS Essentials

ZeroWasteStore.com isn’t just one of the best zero waste online stores to find a collection of eco lifestyle brands.

They also offer an in-house ZWS Essentials line of organic, compostable, and sustainably packaged items that cover anything else you might need for your zero waste bathroom: razors, shampoo bars, hairbrushes, and much more.

Each purchase not only minimizes harm due to the plastic-free packaging, but does a little good thanks to ZeroWasteStore.com’s Climate Neutral certification and 1% for the Planet membership.

If you find yourself in the City of Angels, you can check them out in-person at their zero waste store in LA.


6. Georganics

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Georganics’ Eco-Friendly Toothbrushes UK

Georganics does something a little different with their version of the most eco-friendly toothbrush.

Instead of bamboo, the compostable handles are made of FSC-certified Swiss Beechwood. 

Every tree their supplier cuts down is replanted, and any excess wood scraps are used to heat their German factory.

Their BPA-free non-toxic toothbrush bristles are made of gum-safe nylon that is recyclable through Georganic’s Zero-To-Landfill program once you’ve collected five—for UK customers only.

Just write “Free-post Georganics” on the package and ship it for free!

There are several options for this zero waste toothbrush: soft bristles, medium bristles, firm bristles, or a kid’s size.

Their recyclable toothbrush packaging consists of a cardboard box, but because it’s printed with vegetable inks, you can toss this in the compost bin along with the compostable toothbrush handles.

About Georganics 

Whether you’re in need of palm oil-free toothpaste or peace silk floss, UK-based Georganics is your do-good dental shop.

Everything they sell—toothpaste tabs, toothpaste, mouthwash, floss, electric toothbrushes, and more—is certified COSMOS organic and plastic-free.

Though the toothbrushes are made in Germany, many products are made in the UK

Each purchase helps them support organizations like Dentaid and environmental nonprofits, as per their 1% for the Planet membership.


7. The Humble Co.

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The Humble Co.’s Bamboo Toothbrushes

The Humble Co. has a range of eco-friendly toothbrush options for kids and adults.

And by options, we mean color options—you can choose from pink, yellow, blue, black, or white bristles nylon bristles—”high-quality” DuPont nylon-6, to be exact.

While the bristles are BPA-free, they will need to be removed before composting. 

The handle is also made from 100% biodegradable and sustainably-grown bamboo, treated with natural, non-toxic wax to protect from water, improve grip, and increase hygiene.

About The Humble Co.

The Humble Co. is a Swedish company founded by dentist Noel Abdayem, so you can be sure their oral care products were designed with both mouth health and sustainability in mind. 

Their FDA-registered dental products are certified cruelty-free and responsibly made in China.

Partnering with the non-profit Humble Smile Foundation, The Humble Co. has supported projects in vulnerable communities around the world.

Each purchase allows you to “give smiles” to those in need of safe and healthy oral care products.


8. Me Mother Earth

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Images by Me Mother Earth

Me Mother Earth’s Compostable Bamboo Toothbrushes

Every single toothbrush ever made, used, and accidentally dropped in the toilet is still in existence—unless it’s made with bamboo, that is.

That’s the reasoning behind this next bamboo toothbrush maker.

Me Mother Earth combines their bamboo with BPA-free nylon bristles.

If you’re choosing an adult version, these bristles also feature bamboo charcoal fiber for extra whitening and detoxifying benefits.

Their sustainable kids’ toothbrushes swap the black bristles for paint dipped handles.

Once they start looking fuzzy, remove the bristles and compost both the handle and the kraft box it came in.

About Me Mother Earth

Las Vegas dwelling Husband and wife duo, Alberto and Amanda, are behind the Me Mother Earth brand.

They started out with a collapsible straw kit, but now have a range of individual products and zero waste kits and gift sets that have been consciously designed to simplify our lives and reduce plastic waste. 

They sell everything packaged sans plastic, down to the compostable packing peanuts. 

While you’re brushing away coffee stains, they’re brushing away even MORE plastic waste by also donating to ocean conservation and similar environmental charities.


9. BATTLE GREEN

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Battle Green’s Zero Waste Toothbrushes UK

Cutting out plastic waste can sometimes feel like a battle, so let Battle Green help.

Their zero waste bamboo toothbrush is 100% plastic-free, with a bamboo handle and plant-based bristled.

Containing no nylon, bristles are instead made from castor oil, a renewable material that is processed in Germany.

Battle Green toothbrushes are not home compostable (so still separate those bristles from the handle), but they are compostable in an industrial facility.

About Battle Green

Battle Green is a UK-based store that has spent the past several years sharing plastic-free alternatives with thousands of happy customers.

Today, they have a wide selection of some of the most sustainable body care and household products we’ve stumbled across, from zero waste deodorant to zero waste shampoo.

They use recyclable/compostable packaging materials, palm oil-free ingredients, and contribute to their local beach clean-up organization, Surfers Against Sewage.


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How We Found The Best Zero Waste Toothbrush Brands

What is an eco-friendly toothbrush? And what makes a toothbrush sustainable?

In matters of the mouth, materials matter (now there’s a mouthful). 

The most popular plastic-free toothbrush handle alternative is bamboo. 

Bamboo has a lot of properties that make it good for mouths (anti-fungal, antibacterial, antimicrobial) and it’s 100% compostable—even in your indoor compost bin.

It’s also one of the fastest-growing least water-consumptive plants and, once it’s harvested for toothbrushes, it can continue growing because harvesting doesn’t kill the core plant.

Bamboo may be the best sustainable toothbrush for now, but we’ll see how the industry continues to evolve. For example, recycled and reusable aluminum handles paired with a compostable toothbrush head would further eliminate waste.

However, to make a bamboo toothbrush zero waste in every way, we have to consider the bristles, too.


The Challenge Behind Zero Waste Toothbrush Bristles

Now we get to the real complication in the world of eco-friendly toothbrushes: bristles. 

It’s not too difficult to have a biodegradable toothbrush as far as the handle is concerned, but bristles often get in the way of a toothbrush being fully compostable. 

Also, remember that nearly all materials (even if they’re made of plastic) will technically degrade after some time, but oftentimes it takes hundreds of years. 

Compostable materials are biodegradable, biodegradable materials aren’t necessarily compostable. Pretty simple concept, right? 

Well, not for some brands who fall a bristle short and confuse the two and end up greenwashing.

My Plastic Free Life did some extra brushing (in a circular motion, of course) to discover supposedly “biodegradable” nylon bristles were in fact not biodegradable.

So what’s the best way to brush? 

Well, we really only have a few “zero waste” toothbrush options:

1. Boar bristle toothbrushes:

Boar bristles would yield the only undoubtedly compostable toothbrushes currently available to us—but brushing our teeth with pig hair sounds like the worst way to get a fresh and minty mouth.

2. Castor bean toothbrushes: 

While castor bean (AKA Ricinus communis) is a flowering plant, the bristles made out of it aren’t always as wholesome as they might sound. 

Nylon-11 is what you get when you subject castor bean oil to a complex (and chemically intensive) process. Its biodegradability is still up in the air. 

Some brands claim their castor bean oil bristles are home compostable, some state they’re industrially compostable, and some still place them on the list of what not to compost and recommend recycling. We’re inclined to err on the safe side and agree with the latter.

3. Miswak sticks: 

This traditional oral care tool was popular in Pakistan, India, and parts of Asia and Africa. Studies show that it’s as effective (or perhaps superior) to other types of toothbrushes. 

You can find several sellers for these organic chew sticks on Etsy.


Final Thoughts On Sustainable Toothbrushes

Feeling like you have a potty mouth after reading this?

Toothbrushes, like most consumable these days, are notoriously damaging to the health of our planet.  

And zero waste toothbrushes—like the rest of the zero waste philosophy—aren’t quite literally zero waste. They’re just one of those things where we simply have no choice but to accept that caveat of imperfection. 

But there is a shimmer to be found in our smiles; we’re getting closer to having a fully vegan and compostable toothbrush thanks to these bamboo toothbrush brands.

If you’re still wondering, “How can I make my toothbrush more sustainable?”, try to reuse your blown out brush for zero waste cleaning before retiring it altogether. 

Then have your pliers at the ready to remove those burdensome bristles for proper recycling. 

To help loved ones avoid both plaque and the insidious plastic toothbrush, pass along this article of toothy tips.

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10 thoughts on “9 Sustainable Toothbrushes Cleaning Your Pearly Whites & The Planet”

  1. Thanks for this article! I was surprised with more sustainable toothbrush than bamboo – paper toothbrush 🙂
    Yes, I use a paper-made toothbrush, the manufacturer – Effa. They are a Ukrainian startup and they created, I guess, the best real eco-friendly hygiene amenity ever.
    So bamboo brush is not the best one, guys. You can Google ‘Effa Toothbrush’ and look at that thing.
    Enjoy!

    Reply
  2. Sustainable solutions for a plastic-free world are hard to find, but luckily Gaia Guy has Bamboo and Boar Bristle toothbrush (google it) for those looking for a truly biodegradable solution

    Reply
  3. On Brush Naked website, they specifically say the toothbrush bristles are made from “BPA-free DuPont nylon bristles”. I’m not sure if they stopped manufacturing their bristles from compostable material, but recommending them isn’t the best option anymore.

    Reply
    • Thanks for the comment Jenna, they actually have two types of toothbrushes so you have to be careful to select the plant based bristles and not the nylon ones. Per their FAQs: “Each toothbrush handle is made out of 100% moso bamboo from the Ningbo region of China and each brush is sealed in 100% compostable cello wrap made from wood and cotton pulp. Our plant-based bristles are made from corn and tapioca, which means the entire brush is compostable! If you’re looking for something a little more durable, you can try out our nylon bristles.”

      Reply
  4. “That equates to 90 billion toothbrushes finding their way to landfills every.single.year”

    Your math is off here. 90 billion toothbrushes per year would mean each person on earth would use an average of 11.5 toothbrushes per year.

    It’s still a lot of toothbrushes, just not 90 billion big. I’ve seen 1 billion per year in other articles.

    Reply
    • You’re right Guy, my back of the envelope gets me far more than 1B but a lot less than 90B. I guess it depends on your assumptions around how many people actually use toothbrushes and average lifespan. In any case, I’ve changed this to at least not be incorrect.

      Reply

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