How to Re-use, Recycle, and Dispose of Your Old Bamboo Toothbrush
REUSING YOUR BRUSH
After you’ve enjoyed your brush for three months, it’s time to replace it with a new one for hygiene reasons. But that doesn’t mean you can’t keep brushing with it! So what can you do with your old Bamboo Toothbrush?
- Remove stains from laundry and furniture. Would be great if you did that with organic soap of course!
- Clean small spaces and tricky corners. Computer keyboards, jewelry, electric appliances… Always make sure you take out the power plug! You’re of no use to our cause as an electrocuted brusher.
- Cleaning bicycle rims! Even if your bike doesn’t have spinners, you gotta keep that sh*t sparkling bro!
- Bathroom corners, sinks. It stinks to clean the sinks, but those little corners clean up like a dream when you use an old brush.
- Removing crayon marks from the walls. Of course, not having kids is best for both your walls and the planet, but now that they’re here, chances are they’ll love drawing on anything but paper.
- Deep clean your cheese grater, quiche spring form, peeler, and other kitchen devices. Many kitchen devices have nasty little corners that are obsessed with hiding tiny bits of food. “That’s some pretty disgusting information”, I hear you say. Correct, start brushing those little devils!
REPURPOSING
Of course, you can also choose to recycle the bristles and use the handle for something completely different! For all recycling instructions regarding your brush, have a look here.
After you’ve taken the bristles off your bamboo brush, there are several ways to give the handle a second life. Be sure to give it a very hot bath (boiling / water 3-5 min) though! This takes care of germs and bacterias.
- Incense stick holder
Pic: TBBS Friend Julia Geithner from @journeytosea.
- Garden marker. Never say “where did I plant my darn carrots??!” again!
- Mixing paint, hair dye, or other things; toothbrush handles are excellent stirring tools!
- Material for arts and craft projects. Only your imagination can limit you here.
- Make goal posts for a good old game of Rice Hockey.
These are all quite basic transformations that can be done without tools or additional material. We are sure that many of you can come up with a more intricate and creative solutions!
When you’ve reached the point where it’s really time to say goodbye, you can compost your handle. Try breaking it down a bit to ensure a speedy degradation of the bamboo.
