If you're in the market for an electric toothbrush, consider the manufacturer and if they offer recycling programs. If you’re trying to reduce the carbon footprint of your electric toothbrush, using a manufacturer recycling program is your best bet. 

Materials

Plastic

Polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP), petroleum-based and widely-recyclable thermoplastic plastics, are often used for the brush's body, which holds all the electrical and moving parts. PP and PE are the most commonly used plastics in the oral care industry because they are low cost, chemically inert, non-conductive (meaning there are no electric shocks from your brush), flexible, easy to process, and generally recyclable (we all know there’s a big asterisk here based on local infrastructure). The replaceable heads also often consist of a PP or PE body with nylon bristles. Unfortunately, the production of nylon releases nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas with a warming potential of 265–298 times that of carbon dioxide. 

Electrical Components

Rechargeable bodies typically contain nickel-metal hydride batteries (NiMH), which have been shown to release more greenhouse gasses and metals through their chemical constituents (i.e. carbon dioxide, ammonia, nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxide, mercury, and lead) when compared to lithium-ion batteries. Additionally, NiMH batteries have a greater impact on abiotic depletion, acidification, human toxicity, ozone layer depletion, freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity, marine aquatic ecotoxicity, and terrestrial ecotoxicity when compared to similar lithium-ion batteries. (Not so) fun fact: battery manufacturing has a greater negative land use impact than land used to grow bamboo for bamboo toothbrushes. Electric brushes also contain printed circuit boards composed of fiberglass and refined copper, generating heavy-metal and organic material contaminated wastewaters known to be cytotoxic (toxic to living cells) and genotoxic (toxic to genetic material) in the human body if not purified by the factory before discharging. 

Waste

Once separated, all components of an electric toothbrush could hypothetically be recycled. The typical lifetime of the rechargeable batteries (NiMH) used for most electric toothbrushes is 2-5 years. Unfortunately, we haven’t heard of any companies that currently offer toothbrush repair services to replace failed internal parts, so these parts are going to go to waste eventually. That means if the toothbrush isn't recycled properly, it'll contribute to the growing steam of e-waste, 6.92 million tons of which were produced in the United States alone in 2021. According to Oral B, brush heads should be swapped out every 3-4 months per the American Dental Association. Fortunately, some companies offer recycling programs where you can send in your old brush heads. If you’re trying to reduce your oral hygiene carbon footprint, using a manufacturer recycling program is your best bet. Or, you know, go the manual toothbrush route.

Charging

This may come as a surprise, but compared to the energy and waste produced during manufacturing, the environmental impact of the actual charging and powering of electric toothbrushes is relatively low. At a rate of 8-12W for 5 minutes a day, the annual electrical usage is 0.3kWh. To put that into perspective, it is about 2% of the electricity you'd use powering a blow dryer or 0.35% of the electricity required to power a wifi router annually. Count that in the win column! 

Certifications

Here are some certifications to look for when shopping this category.