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Bite Toothpaste Review

Bite is a company I found on my instagram feed as a sponsored post. I clicked on the photo to learn more because I was intrigued by the bamboo toothbrush in the picture, thinking this was a toothbrush company. To my surprise, I was wrong and it ended up being an advertisement for toothpaste bits sold in a mini glass jar (looks like a small mason jar). I scrolled through the instagram page quickly and continued about my day. For the next few weeks I saw more about the company and its goals and decided that this product could decrease our own plastic waste by so much within a year. So I decided to try it.

On the website there are a few different choices you can make when purchasing your toothpaste. You can get a single glass jar with 62 bites or you can choose to get subscribe and get 248 bites delivered every 4 months. Because I wanted to sample the product I chose to get the single months worth of tablets. They make it very simple by only having two flavors to choose from: Naturally Whitening Fresh Mint and Fresh Mint With Activated Charcoal. I purchased the activated charcoal jar because I have never tried activated charcoal on my teeth, so I thought it would be a good chance to try it. It was very easy to purchase online with a credit or debit card and after ordering it I got a notification that it would arrive in 7-10 days. It took a long time for them to ship it so it took almost two weeks from me ordering it to being delivered at my door. 

After opening the small package there was the little glass jar with the bits! The packaging did not contain any plastic making it more sustainable than normal shipping packages. The jar resembles a small mason jar, which is very cute. Inside the bits are about the size of a small pill. To use it, I bit down on it, wet my toothbrush and started brushing normally. It took my brain a couple of seconds to realize that I was not going to swallow it, so just remember to not swallow. The taste of the Fresh Mint With Activated Charcoal was not as minty and fresh as your regular Colgate or Crest toothpaste, but my teeth still felt clean and fresh afterwards. 

Overall I believe it's a great product and has potential to be even better in the future. My only concern is that neither of the flavors contain fluoride, a mineral that is found naturally in soil, food, and water that is used to protect our teeth and prevent cavities. On the website there is a list of ingredients that they say prevent cavities such as, Erythritol and Xylitol. Other than not containing fluoride, I really enjoyed using this product because of the clean natural feeling my teeth have and limiting my waste with their packaging and presentation of the product. 

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Why allbirds Is The Shoe Everyone’s Talking About

My first product I’m going to review is All Birds. A shoe company that I started to hear about in December of 2018 in NYC then by May I knew at least 5 people who had a pair in my area. There's a chance you’ve seen the ads for them on instagram, tumblr or pinterest. The 95$ shoes are marketed as the “world's most comfortable shoes” while also being sustainable. On a hot summer day my mom walked into the All Birds store in SoHo not really sure what to expect. The light wooden floors, bright lighting and crowds people made it very inviting. We both tried on a pair and instantly knew we had to have them. Now earlier I mentioned that they have two different types of shoes, Wool and Tree. The Wool pairs are (you guessed it!) made out of wool, but the tree pairs are not just cut bark in the shape of a shoe. They are, however, made from a material woven from trees. From what they are advertising, All Birds seem to be making their shoes out of all natural materials. Now let's dig a little deeper and talk about their sustainability.

The Process:

Sooooooo at the moment I’m looking at a pamphlet they gave me (but it’s probably on their website too). Basically, the shoes are made out of three different materials: Wool, Tree and Sugar, like I said earlier. The wool shoes are made from merino wool from sheep in New Zealand. The sustainability piece is that because sheep outnumber people there, the process for making the fabric uses 60% less energy than regular shoe factories such as Nike, Adidas etc.

The Tree is made from eucalyptus trees, in South Africa. The eucalyptus farms don’t use fertilizer and don’t use irrigation systems, basically using 95% less water while also minimizing the carbon footprint.

SUGAR (yuuummmm… but this is not to eat) is actually a carbon sink. Meaning it takes a lot of carbon out of the atmosphere. It also grows really fast. All Birds sources sugarcane from Brazil to make the soles of the shoe.

Other products that are used in the process are recycled plastic bottles for the shoe laces, recycled cardboard for the shoe boxes (but if you go to the store you don’t have to take a box with you if you want to be extra waste free… maybe even bring your own bag if that’s what you want) and castor bean oil to make the foam insoles.

Overview:

It’s settled. All Birds is officially the most comfortable shoe I’ve worn in a long time. I settled for a yellow wool pair (because I’m going to be in the terrible Maine winters for four years) and my mom picked up a pair of the navy blue Tree. From the information in the pamphlet, the website and the sales person at the store in SoHo, I truly believe that the company has gone above and beyond to cut waste, minimize their carbon footprint and increase sustainability. I will definitely be getting another pair in the future.

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INTRODUCTION

For my first post I want to share a little bit about myself and why I decided to do this blog. First off, my name is Dylan and I’ll be a freshman (well now they call it “First Year” to avoid calling everyone a man, which I am definitely here for) at Bates College in Maine. I guess I should also share that I am female and identify as she/her/hers. My name used to confuse people but not as much anymore. Some other facts about me: My favorite color is green, I have a dog named Ace, and my favorite ice cream flavor is coffee. Okay now on to the good stuff :) 

Basically, I spend a lot of my free time on instagram and snapchat and pinterest and pretty much any social media app you can think of. Kind of a waste of time… I know. But! In all of these apps I’ve noticed the trend of sustainability! Whether it's in shampoo, toothpaste, clothes, pillows, towels, literally almost all the product ads I see market themselves as sustainable. So that brings me to the point of SUStainablitiy which is basically to review products that market themselves at sustainable while also giving background as to why the product is sustainable or not. I want this to be a place where we discover that living sustainably doesn’t have to be a chore and understand how sustainable living can be easier. Thanks for reading this! Let's start our sustainable journey!

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hey! SUSstainable is here to review environmentally friendly products and show you that living a more sustainable lifestyle isn’t as hard as you think🌿