Getting your teeth into the plastics issue

Getting your teeth into the plastics issue

By Families TVW features writer, Barrie Hedges

Like a lot of Mums, Daniela Gardiner was keen to ensure that her family made its own small mark on the issue of single-use plastics.

What she didn’t quite expect was to translate that determination into a business that is now selling 100% biodegradable bamboo toothbrushes as a substitute for plastic ones. The idea germinated from a wider employee initiative run at the Bracknell offices of electronics giant Panasonic, where Daniela works in the legal department.

“I am part of a group that has been looking at ways of reducing plastic use, and we have already introduced individual drinks bottles on our desks to avoid continually buying single-use plastic ones,” she says. “But then we were asked to make three individual pledges on our personal plastic use for 2019, and I was struggling to come up with ideas.

“I did some research over Christmas and discovered bamboo toothbrushes, but they weren’t widely available in the UK, and the range wasn’t very big. I found a Swedish Company - The Humble Co., which designs them in Sweden and Germany, and they were happy to supply me.”

With a website quickly launched at fairytoothbrush.com, Daniela’s Toothbrush Fairy Company was launched within weeks and now offers a range running from individual toothbrushes through to family packs and toothbrush subscriptions (taking the hassle and worry out of remembering to replace your toothbrush). Wider offerings include natural toothpaste, tooth picks, dental floss and tropical fruit chewing gum. The products are also all Vegan certified.

You can even buy letters from the Toothbrush Fairy designed to be personalised and left under your children’s pillows when they lose their teeth. The messages remind youngsters about good oral hygiene, looking after their teeth and the importance of caring for the planet.

“The toothbrushes are selling very well and I am now looking at taking stalls at events like country markets,” says Daniela. “At the moment, it’s mainly single toothbrushes but I hope people will come to recognise the sense of buying family packs.”

With 3.6 billion toothbrushes being consumed across the world every year, Daniela believes the bamboo option makes great good sense. But it also helps to deliver an important message to children in particular about the future of the planet at a time when experts are predicting there will be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050.

Says Daniela: “I am trying to encourage my two daughters to think about the environment and I was much encouraged when my eldest was the only child in her year who volunteered to become an eco warrior at school.”