Zero Waste Floss - An Easy Plastic-Free Swap

Have you ever thought about how some of the more mundane, routine things we do impact the planet? For example, flossing. It is part of most people’s daily dental routine, dentists hand it out like candy.

Traditional floss is usually waxed nylon (plastic) packaged in a plastic box. As a non-biodegradable material, all the floss that gets thrown out either ends up sitting in the landfill for many, many years or worse (in my opinion) ends up in the ocean harming and killing animals. Floss is designed not to tear so marine animals get caught in the floss, much like fishing nets, and suffocate.

There are 328 million people in the US. If even only half the population flosses daily as recommended…at the very least, there is 164 million feet of floss being thrown out into the environment every single day. That's over 11 million miles of floss (just from the U.S.) being thrown out a year. The worst part is, it really does not have to be this way.

An easy, actual zero waste swap we made a while back was switching to a compostable floss that comes in a little glass jar. And the company sells refills for it instead of having to buy a new container every time.

We use Georganics, it is a UK company, so while not local for us, you can get it from EarthHero (Highly, highly recommend EarthHero to anyone interested in any low waste, eco friendly swaps). If you do a quick Google search, you can find plenty of plastic-free floss products. Just don’t buy from Amazon.

Use what you have first, but next time you need to buy new floss, consider a plastic-free, cruelty-free, eco-friendly alternative.