Are Your Personal Care Habits Harming the Environment?

We all have our favourite hair, skin, and other personal care products, but what if we knew that they were harmful to our environment? There are many environmental "dangers" hidden within our beauty regimes that many people don't know about. Here are just a few:

Microbeads

Microbeads are small beads of plastic often found in exfoliating skin products, as well as hair products and toothpastes. Microplastics are extremely dangerous to aquatic ecosystems, as they pass unfiltered from our bathroom drains into waterways. They are often too small to be filtered out in waste management facilities. Once in our waterways, they enter food webs and concentrate through trophic levels, eventually ending up in the seafood that we eat. Beat the Microbead is a website that can help you identify which of the products you use contain microplastics, and to what degree. They also give a "zero" designation to products that contain zero plastic inside. Microplastics and microbeads are harmful to environmental and human health in countless ways, and are one of the most important things to cut out of our bathroom routines.

Image From: Young Post

Dental Floss

We all know that flossing is an important part of good oral health, but dental floss and its packaging is responsible for a lot of unnecessary bathroom waste. Many dental flosses are made from petroleum-based plastic threads and waxes, and are packaged in disposable plastic containers. There are now multiple brands that offer more eco-friendly floss options, from biodegradable silk floss with plant-based wax, to plastic-free refillable containers, and more. This blog post from My Plastic Free Life outlines a few great options. Their top floss pick, as well as mine is Dental Lace. Investigate some options for yourself and make the switch!

Image From: Oral Care Club

Toothbrushes

The average person uses multiple plastic toothbrushes per year, adding up to an estimated one billion plastic toothbrushes thrown out per year in the United States alone. These plastics are often not recyclable and end up in landfills or in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. As many of us know, plastics never really go away, only break down into smaller pieces, eventually ending up as microplastics. As mentioned above, these small plastic pieces and fibres can have devastating consequences, especially when they are put into the natural environment in such vast quantities. There are a multitude of options for swapping out your regular plastic manual toothbrush. Some companies sell wooden or bamboo toothbrushes that can be composted. Others make toothbrushes from recycled plastic, cellulose, or compostable bioplastics. Another option is to buy an aluminum toothbrush with replaceable heads, from Goodwell. If you prefer electric toothbrushes, Issa sells a petroleum-free toothbrush that only needs to be charged once every 6 months. This blog post from The Treehugger outlines all of these options and more.

Image From: Got Wood

What Not To Flush

For years, many people have disposed of unwanted medications, cleaning supplies and small items by flushing them down the toilet. Some of these products can have very detrimental effects on aquatic ecosystems and even drinking water supplies when they are introduced into our water systems. Avoid flushing any unused or expired medications down the toilet. Wastewater treatment centres are not equipped to remove many of the chemical compounds found in pharmaceuticals from our water. Many pharmaceuticals contain endocrine disrupting compounds which alter the reproductive activities of aquatic wildlife, and can end even up coming back into the water we drink. Return all medications to appropriate waste disposal locations, often at pharmacies or municipal waste centres. Harsh cleaning chemicals can also pass through water treatment centres and end up in the environment, contributing to a high concentration of inorganic chemical compounds located around wastewater return pipes. Finally, many people also flush small items such as baby wipes down the toilet, which can have many unforeseen consequences. They are often plastic-based and can contribute to blockages in municipal sewer systems. They can also reach waterways where they are harmful to aquatic ecosystems. In general, dispose of any household wastes through the proper avenues: just because flushing is easy, doesn't mean that it doesn't have consequences.

Image From: Time

Start with small changes, and you can eventually make your way up to converting to a completely zero-waste or plastic-free bathroom routine!