Is tooth powder better than toothpaste? Tooth powder is better for your teeth and better for the environment. Here is a link to a good explanation of the pros and cons of tooth powder vs toothpaste. The only thing I would disagree with is the con that tooth powder is less convenient than toothpaste. I fail to understand why a simple powder that can be flicked on a toothbrush, that can be carried in carry-on luggage when travelling, that will never freeze or get stuck in the tube, especially when camping, would be less convenient than toothpaste, but, that's just me. I sometimes wonder if we've been simply brainwashed by big corp propaganda.
Studies have even shown that tooth powder is better than toothpaste at removing plaque. Tooth powder is healthier and better for you than toothpaste, because it has all-natural ingredients. Toothpaste often contains some nasty chemicals that aren't good for us or the environment.
Can tooth powder be zero waste? No. The truth is, nothing we do is zero waste. Even if we breathe we exhale CO2. But, tooth powder is defintely more environmentally friendly than toothpaste, by far. Why? Well, a big part of that is the packaging. With tooth powder, you can use the same container over and over, for years, so the container is actually zero waste, as long as you keep using it.
Aspire provides zero waste tooth powder, available on our on-line store, and in several bulk stores on the front range. You can refill your container with bulk tooth powder, and reduce your single-use plastic. Toothpaste tubes can't be refilled, and they can't be recycled in single stream recycling. I simply refuse to throw yet another single-use plastic item in the trash. That's why I don't use toothpaste. For more than a decade, I have said no to toothpaste tubes, to help reduce my waste and my carbon footprint, but I've never really known exactly how much waste it is.
I looked on the internet for information, and found it challenging to get the information I wanted. It's easy enough to find out how many toothpaste tubes we throw away each year, that is 900 million in the U.S. alone. Worldwide, about 20 billion tubes of toothpaste are sold annually, and they are almost never recycled.