The Wild and Stone bamboo toothbrushes for babies replace plastic toothbrushes.

The handle is made from MOSO Bamboo, a very sustainable and environmentally friendly material. It is very quick growing and requires no pesticides and very little water. The bamboo used in the toothbrushes is cultivated for between three and five years, then harvested. It will then regenerate itself, ready for harvest again in a few years. The bamboo is grown by many local farmers in China, not on plantations. Don’t worry about pandas either, although bamboo is their main food source, they eat other types of bamboo, not MOSO. The bristles on the toothbrush are made with BPA free Nylon, which is resistant to microbial growth during normal use. Unfortunately, there isn’t a plastic free, biodegradable or compostable alternative out there at the moment, apart from pig hair, which has a lot of issues itself. You may have heard of claims about ‘Nylon 4’, but that isn’t commercially available yet, despite what some misleading manufacturers may lead you to believe. So, for now, the toothbrush uses standard nylon bristles, but they are on the hunt for a viable alternative, and as soon as one is available they will make the switch.

Plastic toothbrushes take hundreds of years to break down, which means that every plastic toothbrush you’ve ever used is still out there somewhere! Bamboo toothbrushes provide a sustainable alternative as the handle can be composted, where it will return to nature within months.

The toothbrushes are packaged in a recyclable and compostable cardboard box.

When your baby's toothbrush is looking a bit worse for wear (dentists recommend replacing your brush every three months), the handle can be composted at home, or even put in your garden waste bin (depending on your local authority). The bristles do need to be separated from the handle, as they are not compostable. The easiest way to do this is to snap the head off and throw this away with your normal waste. However, nylon is 100% recyclable, and if your local authority allows it, you can recycle the bristles in your household recycling. To do this, use a pair of pliers to pull the bristles out of the handle. This will also pull out some small metal staples that hold the bristles in, which can also be recycled. As mentioned, you will need to check with your local authority that they accept nylon in their recycling bins. Of course, before you compost and recycle your toothbrush, it can be used for a multitude of other things, like cleaning those hard to reach spaces in the kitchen and bathroom, or even as plant markers in the garden!