You can discover eco-friendly options almost anywhere

Published 6:59 am Wednesday, October 10, 2018

A lot of times, I find targeted ads on Facebook and websites to be annoying and invasive. However I have recently found two really cool products that Facebook has recommended for me, and I was surprised about how spot-on they were.

The first product was tree-free paper products. Instead of using trees to make toilet paper and paper towels, they use bamboo. Bamboo is not a tree — it’s actually in the grass family. I’ve seen lots of products using bamboo instead of other materials, like bamboo flooring and bamboo toothbrushes. Bamboo is a good alternative for traditionally wood products because it grows so quickly in a small space. Because of this, it can be grown and harvested in a fraction of the time as other trees. This makes it much more environmentally friendly to use products from bamboo. More and more bamboo products are readily available on the market. I recently purchased a desk stand that is made of bamboo. Bamboo is also a great alternative to plastics because bamboo will biodegrade, while plastics will persist in the environment for a long time.

The other product I found because Facebook recommended it is toothpaste tablets. I had never thought about my toothpaste waste, but it’s true: Every few months, you have to throw away your old toothpaste tube.

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The company is called Bite and they send you toothpaste tablets called bits. These bits come in glass bottles, which can be recycled. I’d like it even more if they would send you refills wrapped in paper, so you don’t have to get a new glass bottle every time you run out. It’s always better to reduce and reuse than recycle.

I have a friend who tried using Bite and was very impressed with them, so I may give it a try. I have found several other companies that make toothpaste tablets, but a lot of them come in plastic bottles, so you might as well just use a tube.

If you have some other product recommendations that will help conserve resources and reduce waste please let me know.

About Amanda Wheeler

Amanda Wheeler is the children and teen services librarian at the Lincoln County Public Library. She has a master's in zoology education from the University of Miami and has taught as an educator at the Cincinnati Zoo.

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