We all know that flossing is an important part of every oral care routine, but is dental floss bad for the environment?
On my journey to live a more eco-friendly life, I have started in my bathroom, because there are lots of opportunities to make changes that will help the planet.
Like most of us, I have been told by my dentist that it’s important that I floss my teeth every day, which I do. So I know it’s good for me, but is it good for the environment?
To find out, I did a lot of research and in this article I share what I learned with you and answer the question: is dental floss bad for nature?
What Is Dental Floss?
To find out if dental floss is bad for the environment, we have to first look at what it is and what it’s made of.
Dental floss is a slim, strong string that is used to clean between your teeth. Because of how it is used, it has to have special properties:
- Strong: It has to be strong enough not to break while you are flossing.
- Smooth: It has to be smooth so that it doesn’t get stuck.
- Sterile: It needs to be made of a material that won’t harbour masses of bacteria to keep it safe to be used in your mouth.
Due to these requirements, the choice of material is important, which is the reason why dental floss has a high impact on our environment.
Material
When we look into the question “is dental floss bad for the environment?” we need to look at the material it is made of.
As we have seen, its special requirements will dictate what kinds of materials can be used.
Most commonly, dental floss is made from nylon. Which is a type of plastic that is mostly made of fossil fuels and therefore is very harmful for the environment.
Because our fossil fuel resources are finite, it is not sustainable to keep using them.
There are alternatives that are made from plant-derived plastics, which are also called bio-plastics.
While these bio-plastics are better because they use renewable materials, such as corn or castor oil, they are still plastic. This means they will take a long time to degrade.
Petroleum-based plastics will release toxic chemicals as it breaks down which will be harmful for the planet, wildlife and us humans.
Most bioplastics, will break down into natural materials, which can even be good for the environment. There are also compostable plastics, such as PLA, which is made from corn starch or sugar cane.
But that does not mean it’s compostable at home, as it will need more heat to break down than your compost heap can provide. So what it really means is that it’s industrially compostable.
And there aren’t many facilities in the UK to be able to do this at the moment.
This means that at the moment, dental floss made from petroleum-based or plant-based nylon needs to go into the general waste bin.
It is difficult to find out, but according to my research nylon takes at least 50 years to break down, if not longer. Although that is shorter than most other plastics, which take hundreds of years, it is still a long time in which it can cause problems for the environment.
But let’s look at another aspect of floss to answer the question: is dental floss bad for the environment?
Wax
Like there are different materials the floss is made from, so are there different types of wax that are used.
While there are dental floss products without wax, the wax makes the string glide better between your teeth, so most use it.
Conventional floss uses microcrystalline wax, which is made using fossil fuels. That means it’s not eco-friendly. It will also not biodegrade, so will stay in the environment causing issues.
Packaging
Another factor in settling the question of “is dental floss bad for the environment?” is the packaging the floss comes in.
Most commonly dental floss comes in a plastic container. These containers don’t tend to be recyclable at home, which means many will end up in landfill.
There they will last for hundreds of years, eventually breaking down and releasing harmful chemicals.
These plastic containers can be recycled, however, but it has to be done in a specialist recycling facility, such as TerraCycle.
On top of the containers, many conventional dental floss products are also packaged up in more plastic, which cannot be recycled at home either, but has to be sent to specialist centres like TerraCycle.
So Is Dental Floss Bad For The Environment?
Now that we know what dental floss is made of, we can look into if it is bad for our planet.
And the answer is yes, traditional nylon floss products are bad for our planet
There are several reasons why:
- Made from fossil fuels: traditional floss is made from petroleum-derived nylon, which means it’s made from a material that is finite and therefore not sustainable.
- Not recyclable: nylon floss can’t be recycled, because it is too small to be picked up by recycling machines.
- Stays in environment for long time: nylon floss will take a long time to break down and if it does it will release harmful chemicals into our ecosystem.
- Danger to wildlife: because nylon floss is so strong it can get wrapped around animals, especially in the oceans and cause great harm.
- Difficult to Recycle packaging: because the traditional dental floss comes in plastic containers, which mostly can’t be recycled at home, it makes it difficult for people to get the containers recycled in a specialist facility.
This shows how bad an environmental impact dental floss has.
So what are we to do? It is important to floss daily for the health of our mouth. The good news is, that there are more eco-friendly alternatives. But none of them are perfect.
More Eco-Friendly Alternatives To Traditional Dental Floss
Now that we have answered the question: Is dental floss bad for the environment?, we wouldn’t do our duty, if we didn’t look at which of the more eco-friendly alternatives are best.
The main non-plastic alternatives are silk or bamboo.
Silk floss is compostable at home, as it is a natural product. Basically, that means that you can either throw it on your compost heap in the garden or put it in the green garden waste bin.
However, it’s not vegan or animal cruelty-free to produce, and its production also needs a lot of energy. This doesn’t make it the best alternative for our planet.
So what about bamboo floss? This floss is made of bamboo fibres, and therefore is plastic-free and natural.
It will decompose quickly and can even go on your compost heap at home or your garden waste bin.
There is some doubt about how sustainable bamboo is. While it grows quickly and doesn’t need much care at all, it is only good for the planet if it is grown sustainably.
That means growing bamboo could lead to deforestation, reduction in biodiversity and destruction of animal habitats. Because it is mostly grown in China, shipping it to the UK will have an environmental impact.
To make sure the bamboo used for your dental floss has been grown sustainably, look out for FSC certification, which is only given to farmers who grow bamboo in a sustainable way.
Another issue with bamboo floss is that it might not consist 100% of bamboo. The bamboo comes in the form of the charcoal that these floss products contain.
But the main material might still be plastic, such as nylon, polyester or plant-based nylon.
There are companies out there that claim that their dental floss is plastic-free and is made of 100% bamboo, but they don’t show an ingredient list anywhere on their websites, so I can’t be sure if this is true.
Others say their bamboo floss is plastic-free, but then add their floss is made from bamboo and corn. This probably means that they use a mix of bamboo fibre and corn-based bioplastic, which is still plastic, just not petroleum-derived like traditional floss.
So it pays to be a bit careful when it comes to believing claims of plastic-free, eco-friendly dental floss.
Wax
There are also sustainable alternatives for the wax coating, which are either plant- or animal derived.
Candelilla wax and carnauba wax are both made from plants, which means they are also vegan. Because they are natural waxes, they will compost naturally without any environmental impact.
Beeswax is also sometimes used as an eco-friendly alternative. Because it’s an animal product it’s not vegan, but it will compost naturally.
So, as you can see, it is also important to check what wax is used.
Packaging
Today, there are many companies that offer plastic-free containers and packaging. This includes glass jars with aluminium lids, wooden containers or metal containers.
These are reusable, and you tend to buy floss refills. And when they come to the end of their life, they are either recyclable or compostable, if they are made of wood.
Also, these more eco-friendly containers will be packaged in recyclable packaging, normally cardboard.
So there is no excuse really to still use plastic containers and packaging for dental floss.
Conclusion
Now that we know the answer to the question, is dental floss bad for the environment, we will have to make a decision.
You wanted to know, because you are interested in living a more sustainable life, right?
While there are better options, none are perfect. So it depends on your preference and ethics which option you choose.
Dental floss made from plant-derived nylon is better than oil-based nylon, but will still goes into landfill.
Bamboo floss isn’t really plastic-free, even if some companies claim it. And silk floss, while compostable at home, is not vegan or cruelty free.
So it’s not an easy decision, but everything you can do to make a difference will help.
