Zero Waste Toothpaste – Part Deux

4 comments

I was really excited about this one.  Because the last time I tried to make homemade toothpaste, all I ended up with was wasted baking soda and this:

One year later, I’m ready to try again.

I bought peppermint oil instead extracting it from the verdancy of my backyard like I said would.  I’m doubly upside on waste with this experiment because additionally I could not find stevia in anything but individual packets or a non-recyclable bag.

So in a moment of weakness (read:  at the grocery store with two young kids and a set of crutches), I bought some anyway.

I tried three recipes for homemade toothpaste or powder.

Top left:  3 Tbsp coconut oil, 1   1/2 Tbsp baking soda, 25 drops of mint oil

Top right:  2 Tbsp baking soda, 1/8-1/4 tsp stevia

Bottom:  2 Tbsp baking soda, 1 Tbsp coconut oil, 1 tsp stevia, 25 drops of mint oil

 


Oh man, was I excited.  It was easy, it was cheap, it was non-toxic or something and it got me out of throwing away toothpaste tubes.

Oh, girl.

Such a long way to fall.

I threw the girls in the bath, gave them their toothbrushes and started testing each sample.

I didn’t make it very far.

This picture sums up the results.

 

I ended up mixing ALL THREE together for me to use (for the next year and a half I predict).  The stevia got sent to the baking drawer.  And while I haven’t purchased Crest or Colgate in sometime, I’ve been remiss on learning how to Terra Cycle my Tom’s of Maine toothpaste tubes because I thought I would eventually switch to homemade.

Well, so begins my next lesson.

July 21, 2015

About Me

About Me

I’ve been passionate about combatting blind consumerism since 2008 and joined the Zero Waste movement by starting this blog in 2013, soon after my second child was born. I think it might have been trying to unwrap a toy or someone’s attempt to sell me a butt-wipe warmer that put me over the edge… read more

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4 Comments

  1. zerowastemommy

    Thanks for the link! Since I already have all the ingredients (save one), I'll give it a try as soon as I use up all the leftovers from this experiment. 🙂

    Reply
  2. IronMike

    Why the crutches? What happened?

    Reply
  3. zerowastemommy

    Yet another soccer patella dislocation. And ambulance ride. But since I wasn't pregnant this time, I got a lot more morphine! 🙂

    Reply

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