Oral Care Recycling

Oral Care Recycling Program accepted waste:

Any brand of toothpaste tubes and caps (empty)

Any brand of floss containers (empty)

Any brand of toothbrushes (non-electric)

Any brand of packaging for toothpaste, floss, and toothbrushes

 Not accepted:

Electric toothbrushes or electric toothbrush heads

Used string floss

Drop Off Locations:

• ZeroW.org, 795 Allison Way, Sunnyvale, CA 94087 (24/7 in white bin on front porch under mailbox)

• Dr Jennifer Chiang, DDS, 333 W Maude Ave Suite 107, Sunnyvale, CA 94085 (during office hours)

• Sunshine Gardens Apartments office, 132 W Dana St, Mountain View, CA 94041 (24/7 in black bin on west side of apartment complex office)

• We are looking for more dentists or individuals who want to be a drop off location where volunteers will pick up. If you are interested, see below.

Oral Care Recycling Program brought to you by: ZeroW.org, Colgate, TerraCycle

If you would like to be added as a drop off location (especially if you are a dentist!) in Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Los Altos, or Mountain View, see below. Thanks!

Notes:

• ZeroW.org manages the local collection in Sunnyvale and shipping using volunteer power.

• Colgate funds the US national program and is a good example of Extended Producer Responsibility. In fact they are going above and beyond by handling oral care waste from any producer.

• TerraCycle provides the logistics for material management and financial flows and ensures the material really gets recycled.

• Yes recycling plastic is problematic, but this option is better than putting these in landfills. If you can, try reduced waste oral care options like bamboo toothbrushes and wood Stim-U-Dent Plaque Removers. At this time, plastic toothbrushes, floss, and commercial toothpaste are the most effective oral care products.
  
  

There are several ways you can help with this program:

1. Drop your oral care waste at one of the above locations.

2. Let others know about the program (word of mouth, email, NextDoor, Facebook, etc).

3. Get your dentist or organization to put up a flyer about this program at their office to encourage others to bring their oral care waste to the above locations:

   1. Oral Care Recycling Landscape Flyer

   2. Oral Care Recycling Portrait Flyer

4. Get your dentist or organization to set up an Oral Care drop off bin at their site and let us know the location so we can list it and provide signage if desired. When their collection bin is full, if you can be the volunteer to bring that waste to our main site at 795 Allison Way, that would be very helpful! Otherwise send an email to Tim@ZeroW.org and he'll pick it up by bicycle in the Silicon Valley area.