The environmental footprint of a toothbrush will vary widely depending on the material it’s made of, how you use it, and how you dispose of it. Most toothbrushes available today are made from plastic, aluminum, or bamboo. We recommend choosing 100% bamboo toothbrushes and composting them at the end of their life. If that’s not an option, get recycled plastic or recycled aluminum toothbrushes. If you’re buying plastic or aluminum toothbrushes, choose ones with replaceable heads to maximize the lifetime of the handle.

Fixed vs. Replaceable Heads

When it comes to manual toothbrushes, one of the biggest choices you’ll make is whether to buy one with a fixed head (aka that off-the-shelf, one-and-done model) or one that lets you swap out the head for a new one. For better or worse, there is no right answer because it depends on the material of the toothbrush you choose. Bamboo toothbrushes usually have fixed heads, aluminum toothbrushes usually have replaceable heads, and plastic toothbrushes can have either. A recent LCA (i.e. life-cycle assessment) showed that of all manual toothbrush options, plastic ones with fixed heads have the worst overall impact on the environment.

Materials

Plastic

For nearly a century, toothbrushes have primarily been made of plastic. Plastic is made from crude oil and natural gas (aka non-renewable materials), which are then refined to create the polypropylene and nylon that go into manual toothbrushes. In fact, nylon is used for the bristles of aluminum, bamboo, and other types of toothbrushes, too. We can’t escape it! 

Even though plastic is painted as an evil thing, it’s not always the worst option, but that’s dependent on how we use it. Think: virgin plastics that are sent to landfills after only one use vs. recycled plastic that is used more than once and therefore reduces emissions by leveraging an existing resource instead of extracting more fossil fuels. If you’re fixed on plastic toothbrushes, prioritize models that use recycled plastic. 

Bamboo

Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants on Earth, so this renewable resource can be easily harvested without impacting the surrounding environment or contributing to deforestation in a meaningful way. 

Just like with the plastic options, bamboo toothbrushes will be disposed of after the bristles have worn down. Unlike plastic, however, which could take centuries to break down, bamboo can fully decompose in as little as 4-6 months if it is disposed of properly. However, this will only happen if the bamboo is composted, which requires an at-home bin that can handle yard waste or a local composting program and your patience to remove any non-bamboo elements (aka those pesky bristles that are likely still made from nylon). If you decide to use a bamboo toothbrush, have a game plan to dispose of it properly. 

One downside to bamboo production – especially for U.S. manufacturers – is that most of it occurs in Southeast Asia. Shipping materials to U.S. production facilities can have a significant impact on a toothbrush’s associated emissions, especially if the fuel used is petroleum-based. Cutting down bamboo stalks for use in toothbrushes also removes active carbon sequestration. Still, with all of this taken into account, it’s environmentally preferable to plastic. 

Aluminum

Aluminum comes from bauxite, a finite resource that is highly energy-intensive to mine – and uses a process that has been spotlighted for several human rights violations, including reducing community access to safe drinking water. Producing 1 kilogram of aluminum emits 12 kg of CO₂e, which is the same as driving over 30 miles in your car. And that’s just in the production of aluminum…we’re not even talking about turning that aluminum into a toothbrush! Aluminum is also heavier than both plastic and bamboo, so its transportation-related emissions are proportionally higher. All of this said, recycled aluminum requires just 5% of the energy that it takes to produce new aluminum, which makes it a great option.