A brush with nature

Did you know that our daily morning ritual of brushing teeth can generate up to 600 million kgs of plastic toothbrush waste every year? With an aim to remedy this alarming statistic, and inculcate a more sustainable approach among people, 16-year-old Navi Mumbai-based student Sara Kachhara (in pic), along with her friend Sunpreet Sawardekar, started The Bamboo Toothbrush Project. Conceptualised during her internship at the non-profit Urvari, the project led to the sale of 150 bamboo toothbrushes in a month. They used the proceeds to conduct a plantation drive and a food donation drive. “The pandemic helped me understand nature, consider every life as equal and empathise with animals. I took my first step towards paying back nature, with the #bambootoothbrushproject. We’d planned to sell 100 brushes, but eventually sold 150,” she shared.