Brushbox’s Top Ten Eco Warriors
At Brushbox, we’re passionate about making a positive impact on the environment by reducing the amount of plastic we use and the amount of waste we produce. That’s why we’re always thrilled to see people just as passionate as us – especially when they give us more tips about how we can make changes to make our lifestyle as sustainable as our toothbrushes. We’ve drawn up a list of our ten favourite Instagrammers that promote ethical living, zero-waste and plastic-free lifestyles, or raise awareness of the impact humans have on climate change.
1. Max La Manna
Max La Manna is the author of ‘More Plants, Less Waste’ – he encourages a plant based diet with zero food waste, and encourages reducing the waste we produce on a daily basis in order to tackle the plastic and litter problems that are destroying our planet. His recipes look incredible, and show us how living ethically can be so much more exciting than living a wasteful lifestyle!
2. Lauren Singer
Lauren Singer leads a totally waste-free life: so much so that she can fit eight years of rubbish into one jar! She set up her Package Free Shop (@packagefreeshop) to help others do the same, and documents her waste-free life on Instagram, where she raises awareness of the damage of popular non-recyclable materials and single-use plastics.
3. Jo
Jo is Vegan activist who advocates for a low-waste, low-emissions lifestyle. She discourages travelling via plane in order to reduce carbon emissions and hits back at fast fashion and wasteful ways of life. Jo is moving to Wales this term to study at CAT toward an MSc in Sustainability & Adaptation Planning – how exciting!
4. Amy and Ella
Amy and Ella are on a mission to make the world #PlasticClever and are encouraging young people like them to pick up litter – they’ve picked up over 100,000 pieces of litter so far! They’re taking their mission to Westminster to fight for real change. We were shocked by a post that showed a 20-year-old crisp packet they’d found while litter picking, that looked in pristine condition (minus the mud!). It goes to show just how long these materials stick around for, and how very harmful they are to our environment.
5. Bea Johnson
Bea Johnson lives package-free, waste free and encourages others to do the same. She promotes the use of buying bulk and reusing old containers to reduce consumption of single-waste plastic, and is taking her mission to big corporations like Starbucks and L’Oreal with the aim of raising awareness of and corporate responsibility for plastic waste.
6. Rob Greenfield
Rob Greenfield is on a mission to grow and forage 100% of his food for an entire year as part of his off-grid lifestyle. And, while we might not live as extreme a lifestyle as Rob, his efforts set a great example to those of us who think leaving plastic-packaged food behind is impossible, proving that to be untrue.
7. Kate Nelson
Kate Nelson hasn’t used single-use plastics for over a decade and uses Instagram to raise awareness of their damaging impact on the ocean. She advocates for mindfulness, sustainability, and producing as little waste as possible in a fight against ocean pollution. She also discusses the harmful impact of microplastics on our oceans and their presence in our diets, urging us further to say goodbye to plastic.
8. Anita Vandyke
Anita Vandyke is here to show us that living a zero-waste lifestyle isn’t rocket science, and it doesn’t have to break the bank either. Anita’s Instagram page is chock-full of sustainable alternatives to everyday items: whether it’s keeping existing plastic items in circulation by upcycling and reusing them, or finding non-plastic alternatives, Anita provides both budget and investment suggestions to demonstrate that going plastic-free isn’t as expensive (or as inconvenient) as we might imagine.
9. Tim Silverwood
Tim advocates for reducing our plastic consumption and waste in order to fight back against plastic pollution in the ocean. He founded ‘Take 3 for the Sea’ (@Take3fortheSea) which encourages everybody to take three pieces of litter away with them every time they go to the beach – if we all work together, we can fight plastic pollution!
10. Megean Weldon
Megean Weldon has a minimalist, zero-waste lifestyle and encourages others to do the same: she shows how fun and full a zero-waste lifestyle can be while giving handy tips to living the lifestyle yourself.
So there’s our top-ten list of our favourite Instagrammers – we hope they inspire you as much as they have us! Don't forget you can follow us on Instagram, too - @brushboxuk.
Making the most of the carnival while leaving the least behind
Festival season might be coming to an end, but one of the most exciting festivals is yet to come: this weekend, the Notting Hill Carnival will take place in Kensington for its 53rd year.
The Notting Hill Carnival is one of the world’s largest street festivals, attracting around one million people every year. It’s a celebration of Caribbean culture, filled with music, colour and creativity; there’s Caribbean street food and dancing, as well as ornate costumes and live music acts all weekend.
Year after year, all this fun has come at unnecessary cost. In 2017, carnival-goers left behind 300 tonnes of waste. Residents of Notting Hill often go away over the festival to avoid the barrage of litter left by visitors to the carnival.
With over one million people attending each year, it’s inevitable that the streets won’t be left squeaky-clean as they were to begin with: the work of street cleaners in invaluable in the days following the festival, and it’s great to see so many people that care about making sure the environment is well looked-after.
As with most things, though, prevention is better than cure. If everyone in attendance does their little bit towards reducing waste at a festival – so, how can you make sure that you’re being as eco-conscious as possible while you enjoy the carnival weekend? Here are our top tips for having a great time while not leaving a trace.
Guilt-free glitter
Notting Hill Carnival, like lots of festivals, is a place for intricate and big costumes, bright colours and – of course – glitter. Ordinary body glitter is often not environmentally friendly, though, and can be left on streets for weeks. It’s dangerous for animals, including birds, who might accidentally ingest it if it’s left on the street: it can also find its way into the ocean when washed off down drains. Luckily, you can still look fabulous without worrying about causing damage to the environment: eco-friendly glitter options like Eco Glitter Fun provide biodegradable glitter that means you can look fab without feeling guilty about leaving a lasting negative impact on the environment around you.Your bag is your best friend
A backpack, tote or bumbag is a festival or carnival essential, especially when it comes to reducing the waste you leave behind. If you’re buying food that comes in packaging, drinks in disposable bottles or using napkins or tissues, instead of adding them to the pile of litter in the street, pop them in your bag and wait until you see a bin – or, take them home with you, recycling them (if possible) at your home.Do the same with food waste, too: if you’ve not finished eating something, pop it in its wrapper, or a napkin, and stick it in your bag for later (or until you find a compost or food waste bin), rather than dumping it in the street. There’s never a good reason to not dispose of things properly!
If you’re going to bring a smaller backpack or bumbag, stick a folded-up tote bag in, too, in case there’s anything you want to buy out and about. It’ll save you getting a plastic bag (and you’ll look more stylish, too).
Stay hydrated in style
With long partying hours and (fingers crossed) hot weather, you’ll need water with you to make sure you don’t get dehydrated and can make the most of the festival fun. Instead of buying disposable plastic bottles, take a flask or reusable bottle with you and refill it where you can. At most camping festivals, there are plenty of stations with fresh drinking water where you can fill up your bottle. While this might not be an option at Notting Hill, bringing a big bottle with you in your bag filled with water from home will save you money and reduce your single-plastic use. If you’re sharing drinks with your mates, bring sturdy reusable cups for everyone to use, instead of single-use disposable plastic ones.If you do have to buy water on-the-go because you’ve run out, keep the bottle with you in your bag so you can keep reusing it – don’t litter!
Respect the environment and the people in it
Ultimately, if every single carnival and festival-goer showed the respect to others’ homes and environments that they’d want shown to their own home, we’d have the clean space that is best for the environment and the people in it. If we want our favourite festivals to continue year after year, we need to protect the environment that they take place in – and preventing a mess being caused in the first place is the best way to do that.
From Brushbox to Desktop Garden: How to repurpose your old Brushbox
We got our creative thinking caps on and found a bunch of ways to repurpose the Brushbox you’re finished with. Here are our DIY projects that gave our Brushboxes a new lease of life.
News Worth Smiling About
Even when the world seems bleak, it’s great to know that there’s good everywhere in the world, and that there are so many people that genuinely care about our future. We’ve pulled together our favourite stories that made us smile from a range of news sites to celebrate Happiness Happens Day.
From chewing sticks to horse-hair toothbrushes: who made the first toothbrush?
A history lesson in toothbrushes
The first time we mention our bamboo toothbrushes to a loyal plastic-toothbrush user, one of the first things they tend to say (in their state of wonder and awe) is: “but why would you want to use a wooden toothbrush?”
We could go on and on about the benefits of bamboo toothbrushes with soft nylon bristles over using a plastic alternative – but we’ve already done that elsewhere. Instead, we got thinking about why we’re so used to plastic toothbrushes when they’re not the only type of toothbrush we’ve used throughout history – not by a long way.
Humans have been looking after their teeth for thousands of years – but it’s not always been with toothbrushes and toothpaste. Buckle up for a good old-fashioned Brushbox history lesson (complete with some surprisingly wild stories…)
3500BC: Chew Sticks
Before the toothbrush came the chew stick – a super creative name for a stick that you chew on. They’re twigs from certain trees that are chewed until one end of the stick becomes frayed – then these frayed ends are used to brush teeth. the earliest chew sticks have been dated to Babylonia in 3500 BC, and have been found in an Egyptian tomb that dates to 3000 BC. As old as they are, these chew sticks are still used across parts of Africa and India today, and have many natural antibacterial properties – the early civilisations were onto something.
619-907: First Bristle Toothbrush in the Tang Dynasty
1223: Bristle Toothbrushes documented by Dōgen Kigen
Japanese Zen Master Dōgen Kigen in 1223 wrote that, while travelling in China, he saw Chinese monks brushing their teeth with brushes made from horsetail hair tied to an oxbone handle – and once explorers embarked on global travel, it wasn’t long before the toothbrush made its way to Europe…
1780: The first mass-produced toothbrush
This is where toothbrushes start to look a bit more recognisable – even though they were floating around in different shapes, sizes and materials in Europe for a while, William Addis from England is generally believed to have produced the first mass-produced toothbrush in 1780, and it’s got surprisingly anarchist roots (for a toothbrush).
Addis was jailed in 1770 for causing a riot. In prison, his inspiration struck: he’d been using a rag covered in soot and salt to clean his teeth but decided he could do better (to be fair, you can see why). He saved a small bone from a meal, drilled holes into it and tied in bristles he’d managed to get from one of the guards in the prison. After his release, he started a business mass-producing his invention, and business boomed.
By 1840, toothbrushes were mass-produced in England, France, Germany and Japan. Pig bristles were used for cheaper toothbrushes, and badger hair for more expensive ones.
1857: First patented toothbrush
H.N. Wadsworth got the first patent for a toothbrush in the US in 1857 but – get this – toothbrushing didn’t become routine in the US until after WWII, when soldiers had to brush their teeth daily!
1900s: Celluloid Toothbrushes
Over the 1900s, toothbrushes started to be made from synthetic materials like nylon and plastic.
1954: The First Electric Toothbrush
The first electric toothbrush, the Broxodent, was invented in Switzerland in 1954, and introduced in the US in 1960.
1950s-Present
Toothbrushes have become a household essential: in 2003, the toothbrush was selected as the number-one invention Americans cannot live without by the Lemelson-MIT Invention Index. There’ve been electric, sonic, and tonnes of different types of plastic toothbrushes invented throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and the choice is seemingly endless
The Future of Toothbrushes?
So what’s left for toothbrushes? Have we exhausted all our options? Far from it!
The introduction of disposable plastic toothbrushes seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, in the twenty-first century, though, we’re seeing the impact of single-use plastics on the planet. Plastic takes a thousand years to decompose, and it’s polluting land and sea globally.
It’s time to change the way we think about toothbrushes and get back to basics. Toothbrushes made from bamboo are 100% recyclable and biodegradable and do just the same job that plastic alternatives (which are babies in the world of toothbrushes, anyway) do.
So there you’ve got it. A toothbrush timeline, that we believe will finish where it began: back in nature. There’s still time to minimise your plastic use while taking care of your teeth (plus, a Brushbox subscription means you’ll never forget to replace your toothbrush again – forget frayed bristles).
Tune in next time to the School of Brushbox for more teeth-related history lessons (gripping, right?)
How one smile can change your whole day
“Sometimes joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy”
Smiling. It’s the universal code for happiness: we smile when we’re laughing, when we’re joyful, when we’ve just received great news (we also smile when things aren’t so great, but more on that here).
We’re so used to smiling when we’re happy that researchers reckon we can make that happen the wrong way round: that if we smile while we’re feeling down, we can actually make ourselves happy. It’s the age-old ‘fake-it-til-you-make-it’ tactic in practice.
Spiritual leader Thich Nhat Hanh said that ‘sometimes joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy’. The idea that smiling can put you in a good mood has been floating around for years – but researchers and scientists are increasingly finding that there could be real science behind the supposed old wives’ tale.
Psychologists at Tennessee University found that our facial movements have more impact on our mood than we might think.
The researchers found that smiling had the potential to put subjects in a good mood – while scowling could make subjects unhappy and moody. Basically, pretending to have an emotion made subjects really feel it – not such an old wives’ tale after all, it looks like.
It makes sense, when you think about it, since smiling releases neurotransmitters dopamine, endorphins and serotonin, all of which help to make us feel great – they relax our body and can reduce our heart rate and blood pressure.
Being happier and more relaxed has a positive impact on the way people around you perceive you. As you start to feel better on the inside, others’ perception of you is positively impacted, too: smiling signals to the people around you that you’re feeling happy, and the feeling can be contagious.
Humans are simple creatures, and researchers have found that, through the process of mimicry (an evolutionary trait which produces empathy), humans who see other humans smile are likely to copy, even when they don’t realise they’ve moved any muscles at all!
One experiment had subjects look at images of people smiling and frowning and asked them to discern their facial expressions. When the subjects looked at the images with free movement in their face, they were able to identify the smiles and frowns with ease. In a second test, however, a pencil was placed in the mouths of the subjects, making it difficult for them to move their face – and researchers found that subjects found it far more difficult to assess whether the people in the images were smiling or not. Researchers concluded that mimicry is an essential part of understanding one another – which explains, in part, why smiling is so contagious.
Smiling suppresses the control we usually have on our facial muscles, though anyone who’s been unable to stop smiling or giggling at the most inappropriate moment knows that all too well.
It’s also far more difficult to block a smile than it is to block a frown – meaning frowns don’t have the same contagious effects that smiles do.
That means that once you’ve started smiling to improve your own mood, you can have a knock-on effect on those around you and kickstart a domino effect of smiling.
Ron Gutman has shared his findings, among other researchers’ discoveries, about the impact of smiling, and about how it can change not just your day, but your whole life.
Gutman says that researchers found they were able to predict how happy individuals would be in the future based on how genuine their smiles were in year book photos: the more genuine someone’s smile in their photo, the more likely they were to be in a happy marriage years later.
And that’s not all: researchers also looked at pre-1950s US Baseball cards and, as Gutman puts it, ‘researchers found that the span of a player’s smile could actually predict the span of his life’ – players who had a beaming smile in their photograph lived an average of 79.9 years, while player who didn’t smile in their photo lived an average of 72.9 years.
So, it looks like smiling can do way more than just showing that you’re happy – it can make you happy in the first place, get others smiling, and even increase your life expectancy.
It’s worth looking after something that can have such an impact on your day and life: maintaining a healthy and happy smile can lead to a happier and healthier life.
Psst…with Brushbox, looking after your smile is easier than ever. Subscribe today for regular toothbrush deliveries that’ll leave you wondering how you ever did without them.
Your Bathroom, But Better
There are so many single-use plastics to be found in our bathrooms, from toothbrushes to shampoo bottles – the great news is, while our toiletries are essential, their plastic packaging isn’t.
A Summer of Fun: Subscription Box Edition
It can feel like an impossible task trying to get your kids together for fun summer activities but not to worry you won’t be stuck for things to do with activities galore delivered right to your door!
Plastic Free July
Plastic Free July is a fantastic opportunity to look at your lifestyle and find ways to reduce and reuse plastic, and we’re beyond excited to announce that we no longer sell our recycled plastic toothbrushes!
Eco-fy Your Festival
Festival season is upon us and that means great things for our social lives, but not such great things for the environment.
The Smile Handbook
Our smile says a lot about us, and it’s one of the first things people notice when they look at us. However, a smile isn’t *just* a sign of happiness, and that little upside down frown can mean something completely different depending on the situation. We’ve broken down the truths of five smiles and what they *really* mean…
The “of course I don’t mind” smile: 🙃
Let’s face it, of course you mind that your coworker picked you up a caramel latte instead of an Americano, but there’s no point upsetting Karen at the cost of an unnecessarily sugary drink.
This is the smile you reserve for those little inconveniences that life is known for, and it’s the way of showing the world that you will bend but you shall not break! So what if you paid £4.50 for a drink you didn’t want? You’re going to raise your take-away cup and grin at Karen through the sugar rush.
The “I definitely know what you’re talking about” smile: 🙂
Whether it’s the constant roar of noise in an overcrowded bar, or you’re listening to that batty relative natter on over a family meal - sometimes it’s hard to keep track of what’s being said. Instead of constantly repeating “I’m sorry, I missed what you said”, this smile is meant to convince the recipient that their message has been clearly delivered and received.
The “my bad” smile: 😅
We all make mistakes, it’s a necessary part of life, but some are definitely worse than others. Forgetting an anniversary? Not great, but you’ll make up for it. Forgetting to grab the milk when you went to the supermarket? Could be worse - you could’ve left the kid at the shops.
For those little whoopsies, the chagrined smile and an apologetic mumble will soothe most social upsets. Eating the last biscuit but leaving the empty packet in the cupboard however, that’s inexcusable.
The “caught in the act” smile: 😇
You’ve been spotted - your hand in the metaphorical cookie jar. What do you do? Try and talk your way out of it? No, you charm your way out with the cheekiest of all smiles.
This is one of the first smiles we ever learnt as little ones. We learnt that no one could resist a cheeky smile. Unfortunately we couldn’t keep the chubby cheeks and the youthful cuteness that makes this smile such a successful one. Oh well, worth a shot anyway.
The “showstopper” smile: 😁
Karen in accounting asks if you’ve had work done. John from reception asks if you’ve had a hair cut. Susan from sales asks if you’ve been on holiday. You are magnificent and positively show-stopping and everyone wants to know your secret.
But a cheeky brow lift, hair cut, or holiday aren’t the answer. You’re using Brushbox’s whitening toothpaste with your eco-friendly bamboo toothbrush, and you’re smashing through your box of floss and putting your tongue cleaner to work. Your smile is absolutely dazzling thanks to your Brushbox subscription and you are letting the world know it.
Our smiles are a very important part of day to day life, and making sure it’s a happy and healthy one is crucial. Whether you’re trying to hide a little mistake, or stunning the cute barista at your local coffee shop, keep your smile at it’s best with Brushbox.
