Was at Greater Goods tonight to get a 1.2kg bag of Charlie’s Soap Powder — for laundry, packed in paper; more about that later — when I saw the German-made Fuchs Ekotec toothbrush (online retailer), which claims to be “economical, ecologically correct”. Which is good, since my toothbrush is looking ragged.
Is the claim vaild? It has plastic-covered blister pack (admittedly over recycled paper) packaging and the brush itself plastic, but is distinguished by having replacable bristles. While $4.75, it did come with a total of three heads — so cheaper than three half-decent brushes — and replacement heads are available. So less plastic overall, which I think puts it ahead of the recycled-plastic (but unrefillable) toothbrushes I’ve seen.
But isn’t there an alternative? Recall that toothbrushes were one of the first commerical products to adopt plastic — nylon specifically — when the boar hair formerly used became unavailable during wartime. And I care about plastic waste, but even if I could find one, I don’t want to brush my teeth with boar bristles.
{Quick Googling} O Lord, you can get them. I think I’m going to be ill, but don’t say I don’t offer an alternative. And it looks like it comes in a plastic case. Priceless.
