Zero Waste: Tooth and Body Care Products Recycling

Zero waste living seems like a far off aspiration for this day and age, and I am certainly nowhere close to zero.  But after reading the book “Plastic-Free” I was inspired to lower my environmental footprint and felt empowered that my choices can make a difference.  The author, Beth Terry, went from living a quintessential American consumerist lifestyle to generating less than a small grocery bag full of plastic waste each year because she was disgusted by marine animals and birds dying after eating plastics (her annual plastic waste weighs about 2 pounds versus the average American that throws away 100 pounds each year).  In her book, Terry talks about the efforts Terracycle and other companies are making to create recycling streams for typically non-recyclable waste.  Terryacycle’s website advertises the ability to “recycle anything.” On their website, you can search for your type of waste to see if there are programs in your area that collect it.  One of the programs she mentions is the Tom’s of Maine Natural Care Recycling Program which collects personal items like deodorant, floss containers, toothpaste tubes and caps, plastic toothbrushes, and mouthwash bottles and caps.  I was super excited to read about this program, because all of those items (with the exception of mouthwash bottles) are destined for landfills.  Besides the boon to the planet by reducing what gets thrown into landfills and potentially released into the environment, these recycling programs also offer points for the waste sent in that can be redeemed to benefit charities or local school districts of your choosing.  All brands of these personal care products can be collected as part of this program, despite the singular brand displayed in the flyer below.

The Tom’s of Maine program has public drop off locations that can be found by searching your zip code (U.S. only).  In the Philadelphia area, Weaver’s Way Co-op grocery store currently accepts items for this program as a drop-off location.  However, this is quite far from those of us who live in the western suburbs (and driving collected waste over an hour away seems counterproductive to helping the environment).  I reached out to a few eco-minded businesses in Chester County to see if they would be interested in becoming drop-off locations for my area.  The owners of the Community Eco Store in Phoenixville, PA kindly agreed to participate in this collection.  Phoenixville is less than a half hour from Malvern, Wayne, Royersford, Collegeville, King of Prussia, and West Chester (and more!), making it a great location for the surrounding areas in Chester and Montgomery counties to contribute their waste.  Additionally, the Community Eco Store sells eco-friendly items like home composters, reusable containers and utensils, locally produced items, and even solar panels and composting toilets!  They also stock non-toxic, biodegradable Sun & Earth laundry detergent, made in the USA, so you can refill your laundry detergent container and break the cycle of buying and discarding those bulky plastic detergent bottles.

Individuals and businesses can also sign up for free as private locations and collect waste to be shipped to Terracycle for recycling.  I managed to snag a spot in this program last year and have been advertising it to friends, family, and my work colleagues.  Last week we sent in our first shipment of 4.7 pounds of items for recycling (see the pic at the beginning of this post – one deodorant and one mouthwash container were collected after the picture was taken).  Terracycle provides free shipping labels to send waste to their headquarters in Trenton, New Jersey.  Given that their headquarters is only about an hour away from this area, we are not contributing too much additional fossil fuel usage by shipping items to their HQ.  Sending in large shipments each time will also reduce the amount of transportation fuel required for this program.  We collected the following items:

• 12 floss containers = 3.24 oz
• 5 toothbrushes = 2.92 oz
• 22 toothpaste tubes/caps = 16.10 oz
• 14 deodorants = 18.50 oz
• 12 mouthwash bottles/caps and 2 additional caps = 34.24 oz

We earned 282 points for this shipment!  We can continue to accrue points and redeem them for cash once we reach 2500 points ($25) to donate to a school or charitable org.  However, they also offer other redeemable options that are not cash-based.  You can choose to reduce 2 pounds of carbon from the atmosphere for every point you have by supporting emission-reducing projects run by Carbonfund.org. Redeeming 100 points can protect one acre of rainforest for one year in the Amazon.  Other options include adopting land for wildlife through the National Wildlife Federation, removing litter from rivers, providing people with supplies of clean drinking water, or a contribution to the Kilimanjaro Blind Trust to provide blind children with Braille paper.

Because we don’t go through these products frequently, it can be difficult to establish the habit of saving and recycling them instead of pitching them.  I have a small bin on my bathroom counter to collect recyclables, some of which can go in municipal recycling (paper products like toilet paper rolls and tissue boxes) and collect my plastics recycling there.  Creating a visual cue helps me remember that these plastic products belong somewhere else besides the trash bin and keeps them a bit more organized (so my husband doesn’t think I am becoming a hoarder…).  And since we don’t go through these products frequently, maybe a couple toothbrushes and deodorant sticks a year, it’s helpful for us all to contribute what we can.  The more people collecting, the more waste is diverted from landfills and the more money can be raised for charitable causes.

While the author of Plastic-Free commends companies like Terracycle for trying to make a difference, she also points out that recycling isn’t necessarily the best solution.  Plastic products can be recycled into new products for a certain period of time but eventually have to be “downcycled” into different products, necessitating the continued use of new, virgin plastics.  For example, plastic bottles can’t be recycled into new plastic bottles indefinitely, but they can be melted down and used as material for plastic park benches once they can no longer be used for bottles.  This reuse, while providing the recycled bottles a new life, means that we still need virgin plastics to make more plastic bottles.  Terry’s mantra is, “Refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle,” the most important word being the first — we can do the most good by refusing to purchase plastic products and instead look for environmentally-friendly, biodegradable, sustainable alternatives.  There are recipes for DIY deodorant, toothpaste, and mouthwash, as well as companies that make packaging-free deodorants, soaps, and shampoo bars.  Various companies make bamboo or wooden toothbrushes that are compostable (though many of them require commercial composting, which means that they may not biodegrade in your little home compost bin). We can and should re-evaluate our personal care product usage, which may mean adopting a DIY deodorant or a bamboo toothbrush, etc.  I intend to do this with many of the products I use in and around my house and these will be the subject of future posts, as plastic-free alternatives have other environment and health impacts to consider.  For some of us, going DIY in the deodorant department is not an option if we want to keep the body odor at bay (speaking for myself here!).  Other products, like DIY toothpastes, might not be something some of us can adopt, due to things like tooth sensitivity.

So, if we continue to use products that come in a plastic container, we might as well recycle them.  It benefits the environment and raises money for charity, which is a win-win scenario in my book.  If you live in Chester or Montgomery counties and would like more information or would like to participate in our local collection, please feel free to comment below or fill out the Contact Us section on this website.  If you don’t live in this area, visit the Tom’s of Maine program website to find a collection location near you!  How many of these items do you currently have in your house right now?  How many do you go through in a year?  Let us know in the comments!