Product review: Earthly Toothpaste Bits

Even better than the taste and feel of brushing with Earthly Toothpaste Bits is knowing that with every brush, less plastic is sent out into the world.

Overview

"With toothbits we want to create a cleaner way of brushing your teeth, not just for your teeth but for our mother Earth too. Create a clean sustainable habit that helps build a cleaner future bit by bit."

As stated on their website, Earthly has reinvented toothpaste. By producing the first toothpaste bits in South Africa, they are helping to generate less plastic, less pollution, and with it, less guilt.

Toothpaste bits are a more sustainable, eco-conscious alternative to conventional tube toothpaste. This alternative is usually cruelty-free and made from natural ingredients, pressed in pellet or tablet form and packaged in recyclable containers to eliminate the need for wasteful single-use plastic squeeze tubes. Each bit is chewed until fully dissolved and with a wet toothbrush you then brush your teeth.

Very few people recycle their toothpaste and toothbrushes. For this reason more than 1.5 billion toothpaste tubes end up on landfills or in the ocean every year. These also take hundreds of year to decompose and cause massive harm in the process. Many species of marine animals have been found with toothbrushes or toothpaste tubes in their stomachs and frequently leads to their death. Something to think about: Every toothbrush and toothpaste tube you have ever use in your entire life is still on a landfill somewhere.

It wasn't until recently that we decided to try alternative toothpastes and switch to bamboo toothbrushes in our own home after we learned how wasteful regular dental products are.

"[We believe] that a more beautiful smile does not need to come at the cost of our bodies, our land, our oceans, or at the expense of animals. It can comes from a healthier more sustainable alternative."

The company's founder Dan van Zyl was born in the Western Cape, South Africa, and found Earthly in 2019. According to the website he "didn’t just want to live life, he wanted to preserve the beauty he grew up with, in the hope that future generations would also have the opportunity to experience our beautiful and diverse country".

He completed his studies at the University of Stellenbosch he set out to change a daily habit to reduce waste and landed on a very common activity everyone of us does at least twice a day - brushing our teeth.

Working off a similar product developed by American Lindsay McCormick, founder of Bite Toothpaste Bits, Dan created South Africa's first toothpaste bit.

Earthly also sells other sustainable and eco-friendly wellness products on their website.

"Although we cannot change the damage already done, we can start from now and build a greener path toward the future, by taking a little less and giving a whole lot more. We believe in humankind and we believe people want to change for the better as well as take care of mother Earth. They just need somewhere to start and the opportunity to help make even the smallest change."

Packaging

Earthly Toothpaste Bits come in one of two option: A tin with 60 bits or a refill sachet with 120 bits. Tin is easily recycled but you can also reuse this tin and simply buy the refill sachet every time. The tin can also be repurposed to store small jewellery or any small item in. There is a foam-like layer inside the lid (see middle photo) which I assume helps to seal the container. I am not sure what this is made of or if it can be recycled, but Eartly claims their packaging is 100% recyclable.

The refill sachet seems to be made of a paper-material on the outside and is resealable. It does have a plastic lining and the resealable zipper is also made from a type of plastic. It is manufactured by Bak2Earth and is apparently made from "100% environmentally friendly biodegradable plastic".

Content

Earthly Toothpaste Bits come in three flavours: Fresh Mint, Mint Charcoal (both minty), and Berry Cherry (sweet).

The Mint Charcoal flavour is supposed to have extra whitening properties. Activated charcoal has long been used as a purifying or detoxing ingredient. I haven't tried this flavour yet, but will do so in the future.

The Berry Cherry flavour is marketed more towards children who might not enjoy the taste of mint, but who also need a clean healthy mouth.

They list their ingredients as follows:

Xylitol | Makes our bits naturally sweet whilst repelling cavity-causing bacteria.

• Erythritol | Repels cavity-causing bacteria and prevents plaque from forming on your teeth.

• Sodium Bicarbonate | Contributes to the perfect balance of PH-levels in your mouth.

• Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate | Creates the magical foam in our Bits and cleans your teeth.

• Spearmint | Makes your breath and mouth taste clean and fresh.

• *Activated Charcoal | Detoxifies and tackles surface stains on your teeth for natural whitening.

• Bentonite | Acts as a cleaning and polishing agent and replenishes the minerals in your teeth.

• Dicalcium Phosphate | Acts as an abrasive that is similar to the building blocks of your teeth.

*Only used in Activated Charcoal flavour

We have done some research on all the the ingredients and found that they are all natural and safe for humans (not for animal consumption as there is xylitol in). These ingredients are mostly the more environmentally friendly versions of the ingredients used in conventional tube toothpaste - such as Fluoride, Glycerol, Sorbitol, Calcium carbonate, and Sodium lauryl sulphate.

Functionality

I had braces as a child along with several other dental procedures so I have always taken my dental care regime seriously. To be honest I could have flossed more, but I never thought about how the ingredients of the products I was using impacted myself or the planet.

After realising the amount of alternative toothpastes available, I decided to give Earthly Toothpaste Bits Fresh Mint flavour a go. I instantly liked that their packaging is recyclable and that the small tin container is travel-friendly.

As someone who loves having fresh, minty breath and who was used to the strong flavours of regular tube toothpaste, the taste of Earthly Toothpaste Bits was something to get used to initially. Their bits were still very minty and left my breath smelling fresh and my mouth clean - it just didn't have that strong minty sensation your mouth gets from using tube toothpaste (which might be a good thing).

The ingredients in tube toothpaste are mostly chemical and not always good for you (if ingested) or the environment. And if you stop to realise that the toothpaste you use goes down the drain, into our waterways and most likely ends up in our oceans, you have to consider how it will impact the environment.

The fact that you have to chew each bit until dissolved before using a wet toothbrush to brush your teeth, was also something to get used to. But after the third or fourth time it wasn't strange to me anymore. The convenient set size also helps me to use toothpaste moderately, where one can easily use too much tube toothpaste and have no way of putting it back in the tube.

Overall impression

I've used Earthly Toothpaste Bits for more than a month now and have really enjoyed using it. It cleans my teeth really well and leaves my mouth fresh. My teeth actually feel cleaner than with regular toothpaste and it also does not leave a white residue on my tongue after brushing. I do remove it while brushing every time, but I have found it's not necessary with the toothpaste bits.

Using Earthly Toothpaste Bits has reduces the plastic waste coming from our bathroom considerably and, as they promised, I feel less guilty about the ingredients in my toothpaste. These ingredients are all 100% natural or plant-based ingredients, and the bits are vegan and cruelty-free. Even though I am not a vegan, I do like using vegan products as they don't contain any ingredients derived from animals.

I would recommend Earthly Toothpaste Bits to anyone wanting to have a more eco-friendly dental care regime. I know for some people toothpaste powders and other eco-friendly toothpastes are a bit strange, but these bits are easy en lovely to use.

How to buy it

We bought our Earthly Toothpaste Bits in a tin and a refill sachet from The Re-Store, but Earthly products are stocked by several eco-conscious and health stores nationwide. You can also buy directly from their online store on their website.