Tips To Recycle Old Toothbrushes
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Recycle Your Used Toothbrushes
Don`t throw out that old toothbrush. It is time to get environmentally friendly, go green, reduce-reuse-recycle, and in every other way be kind to the environment by not throwing out your old toothbrush.
Just because it is getting too threadbare to brush your teeth with does not mean that it should be tossed into the landfill. Your toothbrush still has a lot of other jobs that it just might be able to do.
It Is Definitely Time To Start Recycling Even The Little Things:

The average person purchases a new toothbrush about four times a year, and if you add all those toothbrushes up, that is roughly around 50 million pounds of toothbrushes that are currently being discarded each year. Where are they going? Most are heading straight into your local landfill.......now that is scary. That is a gosh awful amount of unnecessary garbage piling up and wasting land space that could otherwise have remained clean.
Don't you think that it may be time for you to look into ways that you may be able recycle your used toothbrush.
Cute, little silver tooth and toothbrush charm...
Happy Tooth and Brush 925 Solid Sterling Silver Authentic Ohm Bead fits European Charm Bracelet
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A delightful little toothbrush and toothpaste charm is a very cute gift for baby, teen, or adult. A sweet little reminder of how precious our teeth are to us.
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Or We Can Recycle Our Brush Into The Ultimate Little Cleaning Tool:

Just because your toothbrush is too old to continue using for your oral health care doesn't mean that it isn't able to perform other valuable functions throughout your home. Old toothbrushes are the perfect size to become the ultimate little cleaning brush. They can fit into cracks and crevises that other cleaning tools just are not able to.
For dusting or cleaning deep within tiny grooved objects or ornaments the toothbrush is the perfect little work mate. Your jewelery or kitchen cheese grater are items that shine up nicely when cleaned with a toothbrush.
Out in the garage you can use your old toothbrush to clean your bike or chainsaw chain. It is perfect for getting into those little niches and grooves.
Use your toothbrush to clean your disposable razor with. This will help to increase it's life span.
For cleaning along shelf edges or around drains in the sink or shower they make the ideal mini scrubber. Use it where ever you have small grooves or corners that are not easily assesable with other brushes.
Toothbrushes are also an amazing little helper when it comes to removing tough stains from clothing. Just put a little soap or stain remover on the stain and use your handy dandy little toothbrush to scrub the offending spot. It really does beat grandma's old scrub board for the ease it affords in the removal of stains from your laundry items.
Recycle It When You Can:

There are more and more cities including the recycling of toothbrushes to their ever increasing lists of items that can be recycled. If your city has a program for recycling old toothbrushes then simply drop off your old ones there.
If your city doesn't have a recycling program for toothbrushes in place quite yet........no worries! One of the latest crazes to hit the street are toothbrush bracelets. So if you are a creative individual then you may decide to either turn your old toothbrush into a piece of jewelery or a work of abstract art. The choice is up to you.
Simply remove the bristles from your old toothbrush then soak it in hot water till it becomes pliable enough to bend. Shape it however you so may choose to do! Be creative. Add studs or old rhinestones from other discarded jewelry to see what you can create in the form of a bracelet or necklace. Or use a number of old toothbrushes to creat a work of art!
You never know .... you may hold the beginnings of a great new fad in your hand ....... it is only your imagination that needs to be added.
Antique dental items on auction at eBay now...
Crystal Toothbrush Holders...
Goofy But Cute Toothbrush Holders...
The latest recycling news...
- Recycling sewage to drinking water could save city of San Diego money: Study
- 2012-06-02T17:00:00Z 2012-05-31T18:30:53Z Recycling sewage to drinking water could save city of San Diego money: StudyBy BRADLEY J. FIKES bfikes@nctimes.com North County Times The city of San Diego could save hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrade ...
- Cabell's first e-recycling event a success
- That's because he and several volunteers from the authority and Marshall University had just completed the authority's first e-recycle event for Cabell County, which he said was a great success. "That trailer is nearly full, and we've had a steady flow ...
- Lakeland Moving to Expand Recycling
- By John Chambliss LAKELAND | You'll likely be able to recycle a toaster oven and plastic toys in Lakeland pretty soon. The city is poised to adopt a new contract that will expand the list of list of items residents can recycle.
- Scotland rubbish at recycling to judge by landfill sites
- MORE than half of the rubbish thrown away by schools, hospitals and shops in Scotland could be recycled, a new report has found. The study highlights that valuable resources are being sent to landfill sites with more than 50 per cent of the almost ...
Teach them about Recycling at a young age
You are never too young to save the Earth!
Have a recycling tip to share or just want to say a quick "hello"......leave me a line or two:
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mojo_007
May 29, 2012 @ 8:22 pm | delete
- lol would it be considered weird or strange to say that I have recycled toothbrushes to become paintbrushes? They make some interesting marks... I've also used them for cleaning the sink too.
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Jolene_Belmain May 29, 2012 @ 8:52 pm | delete
- That is a pretty amazing idea as well... I would have never thought of such a great idea like paint brushes. I bet they would be so unique :)
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KateHon
May 14, 2012 @ 11:07 pm | delete
- Toothbrush BRACELETS?! What will they think of next?!? This is such an interesting article with great information! Thanks so much and congratulations on making the upcycling/recycling monsterboard!!
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A-Redneck
May 11, 2012 @ 10:21 am | delete
- Congratulations on being featured on the best of recycling. Great job girl! I guess all those recycled toothbrushes really do add up.
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Jolene_Belmain May 11, 2012 @ 10:57 am | delete
- Well thanks so much, every little bit makes a big difference in the long run :) Keep recycling those toothbrushes!!
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DessertLover
May 3, 2012 @ 2:09 pm | delete
- I love recycling of any kind! And I've even seen people who remove the bristles of their toothbrush, warm it up, and bend it into a bracelet.
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Jolene_Belmain May 11, 2012 @ 10:56 am | delete
- That's very neat, some toothbrushes have very cute handles and would make beautiful bracelets, especially the kids ones with the characters on them. :)
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mcs06278
Apr 28, 2012 @ 12:54 am | delete
- Great point about recycling and reusing whatever we can. Before we throw anything in the garbage we think about how it may be reused. My wife uses old toothbrushes to clean hard to reach area and I use them in my workshop. They're handy to keep around.
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Jolene_Belmain Apr 28, 2012 @ 11:24 am | delete
- It's amazing how many uses we can find for old toothbrushes when we just look around.
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TheLifestyleChanger
Apr 9, 2012 @ 12:49 am | delete
- My old toothbrushes are the ultimate cleaning tools for silver and the underbase of bathroom taps.
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Jolene_Belmain Apr 10, 2012 @ 12:08 pm | delete
- I use mine primarily for around the taps in my bathroom as well (and in the tiles of my tub surround). Silver though, that's a pretty darn good one.
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Blessedmombygrace
Feb 28, 2012 @ 7:21 pm | delete
- Old toothbrushes make the best little scrub brushes for cleaning small areas!
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Jolene_Belmain Mar 12, 2012 @ 11:24 am | delete
- I agree 100% they are a great little cleaning tool for those hard to reach area's for sure.
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zillermil
Feb 24, 2012 @ 7:32 am | delete
- When I was growing up we used to use them for cleaning, and I'd gotten out of the habit of that. But this is a great reminder, thanks.
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Jolene_Belmain Feb 25, 2012 @ 10:56 pm | delete
- Glad to help out in the recycling dept. :)
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KimGiancaterino Jan 29, 2012 @ 11:40 pm | delete
- We use electric toothbrushes, but even those are good for cleaning tile grout when they're ready to retire.
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Jolene_Belmain Jan 29, 2012 @ 11:46 pm | delete
- true enough..... electric ones can be put to good use too :) Thanks for the suggestion.
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jeremykim2011
Jan 20, 2012 @ 1:16 am | delete
- I use old toothbrushes to clean the inside of my shoes, hard to reach areas, and tile grout!
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Jolene_Belmain Jan 29, 2012 @ 11:46 pm | delete
- fabulous idea, even shoes need a good cleaning now and again.
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GrammaLinda
Jan 16, 2012 @ 12:06 pm | delete
- I use old toothbrushes to clean lint out of my sewing machine. Works great. Blessings.
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Jolene_Belmain Jan 16, 2012 @ 8:10 pm | delete
- That is yet another fabulous way to use an old toothbrush :) Thanks for stopping by!!
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Donnette
Jan 13, 2012 @ 4:41 pm | delete
- I re-use some of the toothbrushes in the garden and keep them to clean hard to reach corners and crevices but the majority of them get tossed... great ideas!
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Jolene_Belmain Jan 14, 2012 @ 11:50 pm | delete
- Old toothbrushes are great for those hard-to-reach places.
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DessertLover
Jan 12, 2012 @ 1:31 pm | delete
- Neat lens! Do you think the toothbrush will become pliable in hot water? I feel like it'd need more than that. I love the idea though, that's very clever!!
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GayleMcLaughlin Dec 10, 2011 @ 8:27 pm | delete
- Excellent ideas! Squid Angel blessed!
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The skinny on Recycling
by Jolene_Belmain
I'm an extremely happy person that loves my family. I've always loved to write poetry, I also love to cook. I've been having so much fun here on Squid... more »
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