The Digest’s Top 10 Innovations for the week of August 2nd: waste plastics for fuels and sneakers, eggs without the chicken, 3D printing, algae-based ketchup packaging, green funerals, biodegradable grills

#9 How green is your oral routine? Consider switching to a bamboo toothbrush

In the United Kingdom, environmental groups are touting bamboo toothbrushes with compostable handles and recyclable bristles instead of plastic toothbrushes that can end up in the oceans.

“Bamboo toothbrush handles can take around six months to compost, while a plastic one takes hundreds of years to fully break down,” Emma Priestland, plastic-free campaigner at Friends Of The Earth, tells HuffPost UK.

Natalie Fee, founder of plastic pollution campaign group City To Sea, recalls seeing a photo of a toothbrush inside the stomach of an albatross chick. “[I] stopped using plastic toothbrushes,” she says. “I’d never really thought about where they end up and I was horrified to think that they could end up in our oceans.” Bristle, a bamboo toothbrush subscription service, says their toothbrushes also have a lower carbon footprint. “Swapping from a plastic to a bamboo toothbrush is such an easy thing for a person to do to immediately reduce the plastic waste created in their household,” says Daniel Jones, company co-founder.
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