The Electric Toothbrush Factory

The Story

After having spent what can only be described as a pretty lengthy period of time developing our bamboo toothbrushes and perfecting the grip and bristles, we set out to challenge ourselves yet again. What about all the people who have electric toothbrushes? We have to make a more sustainable alternative for them than your average plastic toothbrush head which you discard after a while and replace with a new plastic one. 

To help the avid electric toothbrush-users shop more consciously we began searching for a partner who could work with us to develop the perfect electric toothbrush head made from one of our favourite materials; the fast-growing and sustainable grass – bamboo.  

How we found it

As we mentioned above, bamboo is actually a type of grass and not a tree as many would think. It's actually in the Guinness World Records for being the fastest growing plant on Earth.
 
Bamboo grows primarily in the tropical and subtropical regions on Earth, but it can grow almost anywhere. It occurs naturally on all continents, except Antarctica and Europe. Almost all the bamboo grown for commercial use comes from China where it grows naturally.

This is why we directed our search for the perfect electric toothbrush head partner to China, where we had found several potential factories with experience of working with sustainably harvested bamboo.

After more than 7 months of searching, we landed on the perfect partner in the toothbrush capital of the world – Yangzhou Hangji, China. 

The process and way of working

It's safe to say that the process of developing a non-plastic complement to an electric toothbrush offers some interesting challenges. We were very aware of the fact that if this product did not function absolutely seamlessly together with the electrical toothbrush, people would very easily revert back to the plastic toothbrush heads.

So, as with most of the products that we develop, we took much longer to develop the final product than anticipated at our first enthusiastic brainstorming meeting. We tested, re-tested and then tested some more to ensure the quality is something we can all be really proud of. 

About the owners

We were thrilled when we found this expert family-owned business in what is described as the toothbrush capital of the world; Yangzhou Hangji, China. 

The owners have been making toothbrushes for 20 years and after deciding to make the shift towards working with sustainable materials as a replacement for plastic, they have cultivated their expertise within bamboo product manufacturing.

What we love the most with this team is their sense of innovation (jumping onboard a project to create electric bamboo toothbrush heads for one...) and their absolute devotion to quality.