The plastic problem

It's already inside you

Every plastic toothbrush sheds nylon as it wears — in your mouth, twice a day, every day. Those particles don't leave. They're turning up in human brains, lungs and hearts.

Microplastics from a plastic toothbrush

What we know

A spoonful of plastic.

~A spoon
A 2025 study found roughly a plastic spoon's worth of microplastics in the average human brain — up about 50% in eight years.
Everywhere
Microplastics have now been detected throughout the human body — blood, lungs, heart tissue, placenta and breast milk.
Twice a day
Your toothbrush is plastic. Its nylon bristles shed as they wear — in your mouth, every single day.

Sources: Nature Medicine (2025), brain-tissue microplastics · peer-reviewed detections across the human body. We report materials and waste facts, and make no health or medical claims.

The scale of it

Plastic toothbrushes. Every year.

Estimated brushes bought & binned annually

1 billionThrown away in the US alone
3.5 billionSold worldwide
5 billionDiscarded worldwide (estimate)
~500 yearsEstimated time one takes to break down

Sources: American Dental Association (US, ~1B/yr) · WWF (global sales, ~3.5B/yr) · industry & lifecycle estimates (disposal 5B+/yr; ~500-year breakdown, Statista). Figures are estimates — plastic toothbrushes have only existed since the 1930s, so none has been observed fully decomposing. Even then, plastic doesn't vanish — it fragments into microplastics.

Our solution

Take the plastic out.

Not a greener plastic. Not a bamboo handle with nylon bristles you're supposed to rip out and bin. A brush with no plastic in it at all — one that composts whole when you're done with it.

01

Bamboo handle

Organic bamboo instead of plastic that never breaks down. It grew, it goes back.

02

Natural bristle

Boar or horse hair — real animal fibre. No nylon, so nothing sheds plastic into your mouth.

03

Composts whole

Handle and bristles together, straight in the compost. Nothing to pull apart, nothing left behind.

Join the swap →

Boar bristle is natural animal fibre — so it isn't vegan, and we say so.