Bamboo brushes are in principle a fantastic idea, so I obviously ordered some myself earlier this year. I also ordered charcoal for brushing my teeth with but I sent that back immediately when I found sugar to be an ingredient. The bamboo brushes I carefully inspected and touched the bristles with my fingers, I brought 2 different brushes from different sellers but I wasn't happy with the bristles on either. They felt the same as my regular tooth brush 'plasticy' not what I imagined soft natural fibres'.

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So I did a little digging....

Most bamboo brushes use nylon bristles and are not biodegradable here's why:

• Biodegradable brushes claim to be made with Nylon 4:

Nylon-4, a petroleum-based plastic that has been shown in lab studies to biodegrade in the environment under certain conditions. However, lab studies and real life are not the same things, and none of these manufacturers has provided any third-party proof that their toothbrush bristles actually will biodegrade, especially not in the cold waters of the ocean. Furthermore, it is questionable whether all of them really contain Nylon-4 in the first place.

• The truth is many brushes are made with Nylon-6 which is not biodegradable

• Some bamboo brushes claim to be 100% bamboo including the bristles but reviewers have been left unsure as the feel of the bristles seems identical to nylon

100% Bamboo Viscose

These toothbrushes are said to be 100% biodegradable. This is weird, because as of now, there was no way to produce bristles out of bamboo viscose without adding plastic. The material would break while being formed into bristles. Bristles made from 100% bamboo viscose would be a huge break through—and yet there is no patent and no news surrounding this groundbreaking innovation.

• Some companies are using bristles made from 62% castor bean oil. The new bristles are not biodegradable, but they are certified bio-based and contain less petroleum-based plastic than other toothbrushes do.

• One of the only fully compostable options is bristles made from pig hair. The pig hair is a by-product of the Chinese meat industry.

• Many bamboo brush brands don't know exactly what nylon is being used on the bristles because many of these bamboo brushes are being made in china, and are often being told one thing to find in a lab test it's another, so they aren't able to gaurentee to the customer what exactly is being used.

I also noticed some brands offering a subscription service where a new brush is delivered to you every 3 months, I don't know about you but I prefer to keep my brushes going longer that.

I also noticed that some bamboo brushes come in plastic wrapper packaging!!!!!

VERDICT

You decide what you feel comfortable with. Ask the brand, find out exactly what they are using and what is their long term vision, do they want to minimize plastic use and make the brush fully biodegradable.

One blog recommends Brush with Bamboo brand
because they strive to use the least amount of plastic at the moment their brush bristles are 38% plastic the other 62% are Castor Bean Oil. The plastic is regular plastic derived from petroleum. Their packaging is fully biodegradable.

I'm not using bamboo brushes currently but I have tried them. My partner and I used them whilst traveling and had to throw them away after a month because the bamboo became moldy from continuously getting wet.

Right now i'm not happy with the products on offer until I can find a brand that has made their brushes fully biodegradable and VEGAN. Bamboo brushes are quite pricey and don't last very long for me so I'll have to continually replace them causing more waste.

My ordinary tooth brush lasts up to a year because I'm not a hard brusher and when Ive finished using it for teeth, I'll keep it to use for cleaning the house, or ones for cleaning for my metal work and jewellery making.

I used to use an electric toothbrush but after the second one I noticed they just died after about a year or two, the battery goes and doesn't recover. I don't like having to throw that away seems such a waste!

I have seen an amazing kick starter for a battery free windup tooth brush called BE, with fully biodegradable bristle & recycled plastic body. I would consider this product once it's finally on the market although we would be looking at somewhere between $50-$100 for the product.

But roomers are going around about this product being faked in a demonstration, and they haven't managed to deliver the product on time, the signals show that this might just be fantasy particularly that they claim the brush bristles are made of bamboo & vegetable matter, not sure how they could've managed to sort out the bristle issue when a simple bamboo brush can't?

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