Dear Crest, You are Dead to Me. Love, Betty

I am a certified freak about oral hygiene.  I was actually told by my dentist years ago to stop brushing so much.  As if five times a day was excessive... Well, now I brush two or three times a day and floss every single day, no exceptions.  I get excited about a new tube of toothpaste or a new toothbrush. I like my teeth so white they glow in the dark. They love me when I go in for my cleanings.  I guess I’m an oral celebrity of sorts. Wait. That sounds weird.

Back when the world was still in black and white and I was young, I remember using Crest toothpaste.  It’s pretty much all I’ve ever used. I think it tastes great and I love it. Crest stopped using microbeads back in March of 2016.  So what’s my problem with Crest? The packaging! Sure, you can recycle the box but what about the tube? I don’t think any municipal recycling centers accept empty tubes of toothpaste.  You can’t compost it. You can’t burn it. It’s just waste. But Betty, it’s just one little tube! Is it? Annually in the United States, 400 million tubes go into our landfills and worldwide it is a staggering 1.5 billion!  So what is an obsessive-compulsive glow-in-the-dark teeth sort of gal supposed to do?

Not all challenges are created equal.  This was a painful one for me and one that I’m still working on.  The best option is to make your own tooth powder. My daughter Esmeralda (not her real name) tried a tooth powder recipe from Zero Waste Home and it left much to be desired.  Bravo for your effort kid. You can order tooth powder online or find it in some stores. I haven’t found one that appeals to me so I turned to Tom for the temporary answer.

Tom’s of Maine is a great company that produces products with natural ingredients and is moving toward sustainable packaging.  I chose Tom’s because they take back their waste for recycling through Terracycle. As all three dedicated readers know, I signed up for the FREE recycling program a while back.  Once I have enough empty containers to justify the shipping, I print a free shipping label and send it to TerraCycle. You can earn points to help protect the rainforest and you gain street cred as an authentic patchouli wearing hippy. Sweet!

It took some time to get used to the new toothpaste flavor but now it’s fine.  I’m still looking for a tooth powder with more sustainable packaging and will give a glorious review when I find one.