What Are Toothpaste Tabs?
Toothpaste tablets have been getting a lot of attention lately. What's the buzz about?
What are toothpaste tabs, and how do they work?
It’s pretty simple. Tooth tabs (also known as toothpaste tabs, zero waste toothpaste tabs, or toothpaste tablets) are simply toothpaste in a tablet form, without the added water.
This means they are compact, dense with nutrients for your teeth, and come in a pill-like form. The concept is to create a concentrated form of toothpaste activated by saliva or water to mimic the texture and feel of standard toothpaste.
Typically, zero-waste toothpaste tablets come in a reusable or biodegradable container that you can refill endlessly. And since they aren’t liquid, it’s quite easy to store and travel with them. Order your first bag, choose the container you’re going to keep them in, and you’re ready to go!
How to Use Toothpaste Tabs
Toothpaste tablets are super easy to use. They’re hardly different from traditional toothpaste, but create none of the plastic waste! You just take a tablet, pop it into your mouth, and chew it up until paste forms. If you find it’s hard to create a paste with your saliva, you can sip on a small amount of water to help speed it up.
Once you’ve got a paste, brush away as usual!
5 Reasons You Should Switch to Zero-Waste Toothpaste Tabs
Here are our top 5 reasons why switching to tooth tabs is the perfect way to create less waste in your bathroom.
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Tooth Tabs are Another Way to Eliminate Plastic Waste and Stop Buying Plastic
Did you know that 1.5 billion toothpaste tubes are discarded worldwide every year? It's a source of plastic pollution that often goes unnoticed or gets pushed under the rug. But take a look at a few of these stats:
- The U.S. uses more than 400 million tubes of toothpaste annually.
- The U.K. uses 300 million tubes of toothpaste every year. Spread end-to-end that's about 75,000 kilometers of plastic, almost twice around the world.
Want in on a secret that the toothpaste industry keeps quietly under wraps? Most tubes are created as thin plastic tubes with metal layers inside. Separating these layers to recycle is challenging, making toothpaste tubes nearly impossible to recycle.
So even if you’re throwing your tube in the recycling bin after you’re done… chances are it’s headed for a landfill. Once in the landfill, it takes 500 YEARS on average to fully biodegrade (aka, your whole life and then some). So every toothpaste tube you’ve ever used is sitting in a landfill somewhere until it decomposes in 500 years…
And even then, it’s just decomposing into microplastics that add to our microplastic problem in soil, water, and animals.
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Recycling Plastic Isn’t Doing Enough for Our Environment – We NEED to Choose Zero-Waste Products Over Everything.
Many popular toothpaste brands like Colgate are making improvements to create toothpaste tubes that are more easily recycled, but it still isn’t enough. At this point, solving our plastic problem isn’t about recycling plastic.
It’s about eliminating plastic from our lives in every way possible and replacing it with zero-waste and sustainable alternatives.
Want the honest truth? Recycling doesn’t help because it’s not really happening anymore. Only 9% of plastic actually makes it through the entire recycling cycle.
Plus, aside from the fact that recycling doesn’t often happen, let’s talk about cleaning out a “recyclable” toothpaste tube when you’re done. If you remember from our blog about recycling, you’ll recall that containers need to be completely cleaned before heading to the recycling center.
Uhh… sounds like a nightmare, right? How do you even clean out a toothpaste tube?
You’d want to give up halfway through.
Let’s start saying no to plastic and yes to zero-waste products that help our environment heal, little by little. Your choices make a difference!
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Zero-Waste Toothpaste Gives You More Bang for Your Buck
We all love to save a penny where we can, right? Here’s the thing about tooth tabs – you’re getting concentrated nutrients and cleaning agents for your teeth without any of the “fillers.”
So you’re not paying for the water, preservatives, and gunk that keep liquid toothpaste creamy. Plus, do you really want to brush your teeth with preservatives? No wonder we’re told not to swallow toothpaste!
Traditional toothpaste tubes waste a lot of toothpaste. Most toothpaste tubes thrown away still have up to 10% of the toothpaste inside!
With zero-waste tooth tabs, you know there’s absolutely no waste.
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Zero-Waste Toothpaste Tabs Are Extremely Convenient for Travel
If you’ve ever needed to pack light for a trip or needed smaller size toiletries for a carry-on bag, toothpaste tabs are super travel-friendly. Compact and tiny. No more liquid or goopy messes. Just pop a few tabs into your suitcase or purse pocket and call it a day.
No more pursuing the target’s travel-size aisle at the last minute before your trip.
No more bringing weird, random toothpaste samples from your last dentist visit (we’ve all been there).
You’ll never have to think twice about toothpaste when you’re packing for a trip.
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Toothpaste Tablets Are Safer
If you’re looking to reduce plastic waste in your life, you’re probably also aware of the overload of chemicals and carcinogens in most of the products and foods we consume.
Things like parabens, aspartame, triclosan, and sodium lauryl sulfate – just to name a few.
This is another reason we love zero-waste toothpaste tablets – the ingredients are pure and trustworthy! They use safe, simple ingredients like baking soda, stevia, and Silica Sodium Lauryl Glutamate (a safer alternative to SLS).
Most ingredients in tooth tabs are natural, don’t contain dyes, and are less abrasive on the teeth. It’s a win-win.
How to Swap to Zero-Waste Toothpaste Tabs
This part is up to you. As you can see, there are plenty of reasons to switch to a zero-waste toothpaste tab. They’re kinder to the environment and more gentle on your mouth.
Ready to make the switch? Start by choosing a brand of toothpaste tabs you want to support. Do your research! At Zero Waste Outlet, we love Unpaste Tooth Tabs. They come in a recyclable paper bag, clean brilliantly, and are reasonably priced.
The next step? Choose your container! Have fun with this. It doesn’t matter what you put your toothpaste tabs in, as long as it’s something you plan to use for a long time! Get creative or opt for a simple, clean container made from biodegradable materials.
Pour in the tabs, secure the lid, and you’re ready to go.
Zero-waste teeth brushing, delivered.
It’s a small change you can make on your part, but a significant impact on the environment.
Check out our full collection of zero-waste bathroom products.
