Glenroy Public School teams up with Carevan Foundation in oral care recycling program

Glenroy Public School's year 5 and 6 pupils have embraced Carevan Foundation's Sustainable Smiles project through the collection of oral care items that often end up in landfill or waterways.

As part of National Recycling Week from November 13 to 17, Glenroy Public School showcased its involvement with the Colgate TerraCycle oral care recycling program, where toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and dental floss containers can be used to make playground equipment and picnic tables.

Carevan Foundation Sun Smiles program manager Cathryn Carboon was pleased to see the school embrace the challenge.

"Every year, there's more than 30 million toothbrushes that end up in landfill and 50 million toothpaste tubes that end up in either landfill, or sometimes in waterways or the ocean, just in Australia," she said.

"It's about what we can do as individuals and school communities to recycle these toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes, because it's really hard to put them into normal kerbside recycling.

"The Colgate TerraCycle program next year will have its 10th anniversary and what the kids at Glenroy have been doing is actively collecting all their oral care waste from their families.

"They can then take them to Australia Post and ship them for free to the TerraCycle warehouse and they can process them. They shred them up, melt them, turn them into pellets, and then they're re-moulded into things like picnic tables and school playground equipment."

During a visit from Carevan on Thursday, November 16, students were shown a presentation and read a book, The Tale of a Toothbrush: A Story of Plastic in our Oceans, to highlight the impacts items such as toothbrushes can have if not recycled.

Mrs Carboon said students were encouraged to consider using eco-friendly alternatives made from recycled plastics, bamboo or with an aluminium handle and were given a brushing challenge to clean their teeth morning and night for at least four weeks.

"The kids are so aware, and, from their perspective, they want to do all they can to have a really healthy planet to live on," she said.

"It's just getting them to make really good choices with the products they're using.

"Colgate has just brought out the first of its kind recyclable toothpaste tube. We're also getting the kids to look at tubes of toothpaste to find the recycling logo on them."

Wodonga West Primary School has also been involved with the initiative and Mrs Carboon was hopeful more schools around the area would show interest.

"It's actually part of the curriculum for both primary schools as well as preschools to start learning about sustainability in the environment," she said.

"A lot of people in the community can also collect their own oral care waste, and a lot of dental practices participate in the TerraCycle program as well.

"I work as a hygienist in Wangaratta, so we actually encourage our patients and staff to collect the products that they've been using to clean their teeth and bring them back to the dental practice."

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