May 2019: Tabs over Tubes
- Kaili Brande
- May 15, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 8, 2022
Hello All! Welcome back to the blog. Lately, I have been traveling more often via airplane. Whenever I pack, I come across the common dilemma of meeting the 3-oz. liquids requirement for my toiletries in my carry-on bag. I have had to forfeit several large tubes of toothpaste that I forgot were too big.
Also in recent times, I have been trying to become more aware of the bathroom products I use and how much waste their packaging produces when I throw it away. These may seem like unrelated issues, but I have found a solution to BOTH problems: toothpaste tablets!
I stumbled across this sustainable idea while scrolling through Instagram, and thought it could be a great way to cut down my waste from plastic toothpaste tubes. Back in the late 1800’s, when toothpaste was first gaining popularity, “tooth powder” was sold in glass jars. But in the 1880’s, the company Johnson and Johnson figured out how to use a metal tube (the kind you find acrylic paints in). Yet today, the metal tube for toothpaste has been all but eliminated by the use of plastic tubes. Although these plastic tubes are useful for squeezing out the last few drops of toothpaste, they are wasteful because they cannot be recycled.
While putting the paste into a glass jar again would eliminate the problematic plastic packaging, some companies have innovated even further by forming the toothpaste into dry tablets that you can chew before brushing your teeth. These are pre-portioned so that you just need one per brushing. This is helpful for people like me that tends to put too much paste on my brush and then waste some. The first company I found to make toothpaste tablets was Bite, a company which has received notable news attention as well.
Their website claims that “more than 1 billion plastic toothpaste tubes are thrown out each year”, and I honestly believe it. If you think about it, most people have their own personal tube (don’t share it with family members) and usually go through multiple tubes per year. This ends up contributing to our ever-growing landfills at a very unsustainable rate.
Instead, we can choose to clean our teeth using products that don’t come in a plastic tube. The glass bottle and metal lid of Bite toothpaste tablets are recyclable, not to mention sleek-looking. Another great brand of toothpaste tablets that I am personally using now is from Weldental, found on Amazon here. Both of these brands use quality ingredients, and offer tablet refills to be sent to your home in compostable bags, so that you can refill the original glass bottle you bought. Talk about minimal waste (and ethical companies)!
The peppermint flavor of the Chewtabs (above) is also amazing, in my opinion! In addition, if you are concerned about the effectiveness of whether or not the chewed tabs clean your teeth as efficiently as toothpaste, I personally questioned my dental hygienist the last time I went to the dentist. She explained to me that the most effective part of brushing is the “mechanical” aspect that the toothbrush bristles provide, rather than the “chemical” aspect that any sort of cleansing or foaming the paste/tabs provide. The benefit of the paste/tabs was mainly just the minty flavor and “feeling”. Who knew! Therefore, she said, toothpaste in the form of tabs was a legitimate option for tooth hygiene!
Finally, I must also mention that another sustainable option of reducing toothpaste tube waste is making your own toothpaste at home. In this case, you can reuse any glass container you already own to store the homemade paste. While I have never tried this myself, it looks like a relatively easy task. Check out a tutorial of how to make your own toothpaste here! On the other hand, for those of you who may not have time to make your own, toothpaste tabs are a very easy way to become more sustainable. ;)
Let’s reduce our plastic waste, innovate the way we clean our teeth, and maybe make it easier on ourselves the next time we pack our suitcases and travel! Leave a comment below if you have tried any of these methods or plan to do it soon! :)
Comments