Local Dentists offer Dental Recycling
Three Teton Valley Dental offices have agreed to join forces with Teton Valley Community Recycling to provide convenient locations to drop off your dental waste for proper recycling. This includes old toothbrushes, empty toothpaste tubes, empty floss containers, and any associated packaging. The recycling program, which is financed by Colgate and coordinated nationally by TerraCycle, provides communities like ours an option to divert some of this “hard to recycle” waste by collecting and shipping it for free to a larger recycling facility. TerraCycle works directly with product manufacturers to take responsibility for proper disposal of products they make.
The great thing about the dental waste recycling program is that while Colgate is the sponsor, you can recycle any brand of toothbrush, toothpaste, or floss (and the packaging). There is no cost for the program. Our local dentists in Victor and Driggs have small collection boxes at their offices, so if they give you a new toothbrush after your appointment, you can responsibly toss your old toothbrush. You can even unpack your new toothbrush and send off the packaging to be recycled. Without programs like this, the thousands of toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes consumed in Teton Valley end up in the Mud Lake landfill where they will sit for thousands of years.
Check with your dentist to find out where their Dental Waste Recycling box is located (it might be behind the counter or in the waiting room) and drop off your dental waste. Teton Valley Community Recycling volunteers will periodically pick up waste from the dentists to ship to the Colgate processing facility.
Thank you to the following local Dental offices for participation in the program
– Grand Teton Dental Center (7389 S Hwy 33, Victor – Dr. Ray Cherry, DDS)
– Mountain River Dental (7726 Lupine Drive, Victor – Dr. Tristan Taylor, DDS)
– Teton Valley Dental Center (235 Wallace Ave, Driggs – Dr. Jim Neerings, DDS)
And thank you, Teton Valley residents, for responsibly disposing of your waste.
