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Aspire Tooth Powder

About Aspire Tooth Powder - Your Ecofriendly Choice for Personal Care!

                Aspire Tooth Powder is basically dry toothpaste, or toothpaste without the water.  By leaving out the water, we have a powder instead of a paste.  This is the most natural, ecofriendly way to brush your teeth.  Toothpowder works the same as toothpaste, many say even better.  And, the best part is, with a powder, you don’t need a toothpaste tube.  Toothpowder can be dispensed from any refillable bottle, jar or tub, unlike toothpaste, which requires a squeezable tube that can’t be reused or recycled.  In fact, it’s impossible to use all the toothpaste that you pay for when you buy a tube of toothpaste, because a significant amount sticks to the insides of the tube. 

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                The worst thing about toothpaste tubes, is they can’t be recycled in a single-stream curb-side program.  These programs recycle strictly plastic bottles and sometimes also tubs.  This is why, in the U.S., about 900 million toothpaste tubes are tossed in the landfill every year.  Which is sad, because toothpaste tubes are made of layers of plastic, with a layer of aluminum between them, so throwing them in the landfill means wasting both aluminum and plastic.  It takes 20 times more energy to make aluminum from raw mined bauxite ore compared to recycling it.  What a waste to throw it away!  Single-use plastic is about 1.75% of the U.S. carbon footprint.  What a useless way to waste energy, but, if you must have toothpaste in a tube in order to be fulfilled in life, then at least recycle the tube. 

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                There is only one company in the U.S. that recycles toothpaste tubes, and that is Terracyle.  They also describe their recycling process transparently, which is something every responsible company, including Aspire should do.  We’re doing it right here, with these words.  Aspire is currently providing a Terracycle box to recycle dental hygiene products, like toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, and dental floss containers.  It’s in front of our shop in Golden.  We are hosting this box to help you get rid of those last toothpaste tubes, so you can move to toothpowder and avoid the tubes altogether.  We hope that we are setting a good example by hosting this box, and inspiring others to do the same in their own neighborhoods.  Then tell them to try some Aspire toothpowder.  You’ll be glad you did!  Aspire toothpowder is gaining a nice following, so consumers must like it.

Ingredients in Aspire Toothpowder

  • Sodium Bicarbonate, otherwise known as baking soda.  Our mouths prefer alkalinity, and baking soda is a mild alkaline powder.  It is derived typically from salt, which is a natural mined material.  This eco-friendly means of production is considered fine for organic products.  The supply is from Rifle, Colorado, U.S.A.

  • Tartaric Acid, a mild organic acid, is a natural, eco-friendly antioxidant, typically derived from grapes as a byproduct of winemaking.  Ours is  Kosher, complies with ISO 14001 Environmental Manufacturing Practices, and comes from Chile.  Tartaric acid is in the product to create a mild fizz, when the dry baking soda and tartaric acid dissolve together in the moisture on a damp toothbrush.  This fizz creates a nice mouthfeel when brushing your teeth.

  • Guar Gum is a plant-derived, natural polysaccharide.  A tiny bit expands when it dissolves in water, creating thickness and mouthfeel, enhancing the fizz described above.  Organic and non-gmo.

  • Sodium Chloride, or good old table salt.  There’s a dab in there because it intensifies the flavor of the toothpowder, which is the same reason we add it to food.  We use natural organic sea salt, so it contains micro amounts of minerals in addition to sodium chloride.

  • Dolomite, which is natural mined limestone that has been cleaned up and crushed.  We use food grade dolomite.  Dolomite is a natural blend of calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate.  Both of these are excellent abrasives that aid in cleaning.  Some products will list either calcium carbonate or magnesium carbonate, or both.  We prefer the dolomite because it is made with one less manufacturing step, by avoiding the separation of the calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate, which is an energy-intensive process.  After all, why make it more complicated, which means more energy for more steps, if we don’t need it?  The two materials work the same for toothbrushing, so we may as well just use plain old dolomite.

  • Essential Oils – Aspire uses strictly essential oils to flavor our products.  Currently, we use Wintergreen (organic), Peppermint (organic), Clove and Cinnamon, though we may add or change flavors in the future.  Essential oils are natural ingredients that are rendered from plants, and those in Aspire toothpowder are organic..

Ingredients To Avoid in Tooth Paste and Tooth Powder 

  • Sugar.  Seriously.  Do we really need or want to rub sugar into our teeth and into our gums while cleaning our teeth?  Sugar is known to cause tooth decay, so why in the world would we want it in our toothpaste or toothpowder?  We don’t use synthetic fake sugars like saccharin or sorbitol either.  We think sweeteners in toothpaste is just silly.  Yeeesh.

  • Synthetic Dyes, such as Yellow 10 or Blue 1.  These are made from fossil fuels, and are not biodegradable, and many synthetic dyes pass through wastewater treatment systems, polluting receiving water bodies.  These tend to be extremely toxic to aquatic life at extremely low concentrations, causing death and deformities, ultimately leading to extreme loss of species and ultimately extinction.  Synthetic dyes aren’t that great for us, either.  Are we sure our tooth cleaning products need to have cherry-red stripes or shiny aqua green?  Is it truly worth the stress and harm to our wildlife?  Or us?  Aspire refuses to be a part of that.

  • Synthetic Flavors.  Similar to synthetic dyes described above, synthetic flavors do not belong in any kind of products, because they ultimately end up somewhere in receiving water bodies, where they degrade the land and wildlife.  They aren’t good for us, either.  Aren’t there enough natural flavors to choose from?

  • Fluorides, such as sodium monofluorophosphate or sodium fluoride.  Fluoride is not necessary, because we get it in our food.  Some toothpaste makers like to complicate their products in order to distinguish them above other similar products.  We are keeping Aspire Tooth Powder simple by leaving this out.

  • Desiccants, such as silicas and silicates.  We don’t use them in our toothpowder for the same reasons that we don’t use them in our soap.

  • Detergents, such as sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate or sodium lauroyl sarcosinate, used as foaming agents and cleansing ingredients.  Who would want detergent in their mouth?  After all, we are brushing our teeth, not washing our mouth out with soap.

  • Parabens, such as methylparaben or propylparaben, which are used as preservatives.  Scientific studies show that parabens can disrupt hormone function by mimicking the hormone estrogen, harm fertility and reproductive organs, affect birth outcomes, and increase the risk of cancer.  They can also cause skin irritation.  In some cases, parabens may lead to breast cancer.  Preservatives of any kind are totally unnecessary in Aspire toothpowder, because the product is completely inhospitable to bacteria.

  • Titanium Dioxide is a whitener.  Exposure can irritate the eyes, nose and throat, and it has been shown to cause lung cancer in animals, so it is also a carcinogen. Such substances may also have the potential for causing reproductive damage in humans.  All this risk for whiter teeth?  Not in Aspire products!

  • Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) is used as a dispersant and anti-foaming agent.  The problem with PEG compounds is that ethylene oxide, a petrochemical, is used in their production in a process called ethoxylation. This process can cause contamination with ethylene oxide, a chemical associated with multiple kinds of cancer.

  • Triclosan is used as an antibacterial.  It is an endocrine-disrupting chemical that can cause brain damage and cancer. It causes bacterial resistance to antibiotics, not to mention a major environmental pollutant that is bioaccumulating in fish and other aquatic organisms.  Aspire toothpowder is an alkaline product that is made with inorganic ingredients, other than the guar gum and essential oils, and contains nothing that would be particularly interesting to microbes, so there is no need for any kind of antibacterial.

  • PVM/MA Copolymer is a copolymer of methyl vinyl ether and maleic anhydride and is used as a binder.  In other words, it helps triclosan stay on your teeth and gums where it can kill bacteria, rather than getting rinsed away. Binders work by keeping a formula bound together in the compound, in this case the toothpaste. PVM/MA copolymer can be highly irritating in the eyes, skin, and mucous membranes, including our gums.  Yuck!  Who would want this stuff in their mouth?  And, by bonding antibacterials like triclosan to our gums, we are killing the natural biomass that exists in our mouths, that is there naturally to protect our teeth and gums from intrusive and damaging microbes and infectants.  We need a healthy bacteria culture in our mouths for healthy teeth and gums, so why would we want to kill them off every time we brush our teeth?

  • Xylitol works by starving the bacteria since the harmful bacteria in your mouth can't process it.  Adverse effects that have been reported in studies include mouth sores, bloating, cramps, constipation, gas, loose stools, and diarrhea.  The toothpaste shouldn't be ingested or left in the mouth without rinsing.  At Aspire, we know that the bacteria in our mouth are important.  They protect our teeth and gums, and aid in initial digestion of food, so why on earth would we want to kill them every day?  Aspire aids in keeping our teeth and gums free of buildup of food particles by simply cleaning the teeth.  We don’t need to kill our oral bacteria in the process, while adding other health problems in our bodies.  And, by leaving this nasty stuff out of our product, Aspire Tooth Powder can be safely swallowed.  In fact, if you have an upset stomach or acid reflux, swallowing Aspire Tooth Powder can settle your stomach because of all that baking soda!

HELP CLEAN UP OUR ENVIRONMENT!

      Recycle your last toothpaste tube, and start using Aspire tooth powder!  You will have one less plastic container to throw in the trash, and that will help our environment.

 

Aspire Colorado, LLC, is hosting a specialty recycling box from TerraCycle for toothpaste tubes and toothbrushes.  You can bring your used toothpaste tubes to our Golden, Colorado, facility, and place it in the labelled box that is by the front door.

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