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We all know the slogan “reduce, reuse, recycle”, but it seems that there are some items that are painfully not a part of that equation, and are the reason that trash-collection is still a part of our weekly lives. One example of a seemingly cradle-to-grave product is the toothbrush; it’s something that most of us use on a day-to-day basis, but which, every few months, gets tossed into the garbage and replaced. Though small, these plastic sticks can add up, and it’s worth examining some cradle-to-cradle alternatives to this part of our daily routine.
The toothbrush I use is the Preserve Toothbrush from Recycline. Everything is the same as with a standard toothbrush, but the Preserve toothbrush is made from 100% recycled plastic, packaged in a petroleum-free plastic container that doubles as a travel case, and the entire thing can be sent back to Recycline via their postage-paid mailers where the plastics are again recycled and made into other useful products.
Another more environmentally-friendly toothbrush option, this one taking advantage of the ‘reduce’ and ‘reuse’ parts of the equation, is the Source Toothbrush from Radius. Radius designed a unique toothbrush that helps people to brush teeth more effectively, and with their Source toothbrush they combined this unique design with a natural and reusable base, reducing the waste of the toothbrush head to just 7% of the entire toothbrush.
Combine either of these toothbrushes with a small amount of naturally-derived toothpaste or a simple baking soda paste, keep the water turned off except to wet the toothbrush before use and to rinse after, and you’ve successfully started or ended your day with a lowered negative impact on the planet. Another great way give toothbrushes a little more life before trashing them (or sending them for recycling) is to keep a few around for small-scale scrubbing of laundry stains, bathroom fixtures, etc.
Growing up, I was a ten-minute showerer. The shower heads were pretty high-flow and would empty the water heater after about ten minutes, so I timed my showers by the end of the hot-water supply. Living on Lake Michigan I saw a vast abundance of water everyday, so the idea of not having enough didn’t click for me right away as it might for someone living in a more arid climate. Since then I’ve always lived within a few miles of a large body of water and have never had to pay a water bill, so as my awareness and action of conservation in other areas improved, I still found myself uncompelled to save water.
This is where, in similar stories, I would write about the revelation that made me realize water as a finite supply that I must take upon myself to conserve – but I still haven’t had a moment like that. I passionately understand keeping water clean from harmful pollution and I appreciate the great power of water, but, for me, the idea of using less water is still more of a thought experiment; it’s something I abstractly know I should do, so I try to take steps to do so.
Shorter showers, then, seem the perfect place for me to begin my ‘Green the Routine’ series. I started by trying to just take faster showers, but on dark winter mornings, standing in the hot water before having to venture out in the ice and snow was too much of a treat to get me to shower quickly. As I realized this wasn’t going to get me anywhere, I then started setting the kitchen timer for five minutes and racing to beat the clock. This worked well as I quickly learned how much time and water I had previously been wasting in the morning. Eventually, though, I reached a plateau around three-and-a-half-minute showers and couldn’t manage to get much faster. It was then that I remembered hearing about the ‘navy shower’, in which the water is running only for a few seconds at the beginning of a shower to wet one’s body, then turned off to lather, then on again just long enough to rinse off.
It’s taken a little getting used to turning off the water while lathering in the shower, but I’m amazed by the efficiency of the practice, and I don’t feel I’m missing much compared to the ten-minute showers of my youth. I’m not sure how pleasant I’ll find the navy shower when the weather turns cold again, but for now I’m saving somewhere around three gallons of water for each minute that the water isn’t running, and even if I switch back to my five-minute timed showers for some days, that’s still fifteen gallons of water saved verses a ten-minute shower.
I’d like to now put the challenge out to you, reader, to see what steps you can take to reduce your water use when you shower. Can you limit the time spent in the shower? Switch to the navy shower method? Install a low-flow shower head in conjunction with one of these things? Let me know what works for you, and please comment or email if there’s a routine you’d like me to explore in the ‘Green the Routine’ series.
