Mar 2020: Swap your Swabs

Hello all! Welcome back to the blog. As many of you may know, plastic pollution in the ocean is one of the biggest ongoing environmental concerns we face. What you may not know, is many of the small actions we take every day end up contributing to this larger problem. One unlikely culprit? Cotton swabs.

In 2017, a nature photographer’s photo of a seahorse latched onto a plastic Q-tip went viral. It was featured in National Geographic and was also a finalist in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition for the Natural History Museum in London. While this photo was endearing for some, it served as a harrowing reminder of the world’s problematic relationship with plastic. Since then, the photo has become a “hallmark” image of the sustainability movement.

While cotton swabs aren’t very large or even the most common source of plastic pollution from one’s bathroom, they are an important part of the overall problem. It’s likely that the person who bought the cotton swab in the photo didn’t think it was a big deal or that this piece of plastic trash would matter; in this moment, however, it definitely did matter.

In order to make sure we don’t become “that person”, there are several more sustainable options available to us. The quickest swap is to opt for paper sticks on your cotton swabs instead of plastic sticks. This is because if a rogue cotton swab DOES make its way into the ocean or another natural space, the paper stick will biodegrade in a matter of weeks or months, while the plastic stick could take hundreds if not thousands of years. While a paper stick does have its own environmental cost, the paper stick would be soggy and disintegrating in the water next to the seahorse, rather than appearing as something sturdy to hold onto. Conversely, even if the cotton swab never made it to the ocean, it would likely end up in a landfill, which are ever-growing in the U.S. and rarely decompose without releasing greenhouse gases.

If you’re ever tried using both kinds of cotton swab sticks, you’ll know that they do the job equally as well, and therefore having a plastic stick is an unnecessary use of sturdy plastic. I’m not the only proponent of this idea: in October 2019, Scotland went so far as to ban the sale and manufacturing of plastic cotton buds!

Thousands of these plastic sticks from cotton swabs have washed ashore in Scotland, let alone globally.

While choosing paper sticks is a great option, an even better option is to choose reusable! (Reusing IS usually the answer in sustainability 😉). A new company called LastSwab (now under the collective name of LastObject) has grown from a mere Kickstarter webpage in early 2019 to a full fledged business, creating reusable cotton swabs and other products! I first discovered them in an Instagram ad in early 2019, and while it took until winter of 2019 for them to be able to ship to the U.S., I finally was able to test out my own LastSwab this month!

The LastSwab cotton swab is not made with cotton at all; instead it is made from a sturdy plastic stick and plastic/rubber “swab” end. While the carrying case is plastic (rather than bamboo as some customers have suggested), its characteristics help keep it sanitary and easily sterilized. While you might be thinking, “that’s a lot of plastic!”, it is important to remember scale. From their website, LastSwab shares: “Even if LastSwab does end up in the ocean, its damage is less than 0.1% of its single-use counterparts, simply because there will be much less of them.” By choosing to reuse, the TOTAL amount of waste you produce, albeit plastic, will be far less in the long-run than if you used hundreds of single-use swabs every year for multiple years, etc. If you think about our consumption in that frame of mind, you’ll soon realize how big a single human can have on the planet, and how reusing can really cut down that impact!

The minimalist packaging was a plus! The plastic case makes it perfect for (sanitary) travel; I threw mine in my makeup bag!

Testing my own LastSwab was quite the fun experiment! LastSwab has two options: a “basic” swab and a “beauty” swab, which come in a variety of colors. I ordered one of each, as pictured below. I use cotton swabs for cleaning my ears, and the silicone-like end of LastSwab was comfortable when inserted into the ear. Furthermore, I use cotton swabs to wipe makeup from the corners of my eyes; wiping those areas with the “beauty” LastSwab seemed to be a comfortable switch. Following LastSwab’s directions, you can easily clean your LastSwab using soap and water. This process shouldn’t have to be gross; after all, the only residue on it will be from your OWN body!

The rest of my single-use cotton swabs, and my stylish replacements!

From here on, my plan is to continue using up my *last* box of paper-stick cotton swabs, and then switch over to my LastSwabs! With little “switches” such as this one, we can start to cut down our collective impact and become more sustainable consumers over time. What do you think? Feel free to comment below with your thoughts! Together, shall we swap our swabs? 😉

#choosetoreuse #seahorseqtipphoto #sustainableswabs #swapyourswab