- Recycle Week asks oral healthcare professionals to promote the benefits of recycling, alongside flossing
- Number of local authorities collecting toothpaste tubes shoots up to 61
- To raise awareness of the fact that all toothpaste tubes are now 100% recyclable, Recycle Now is reaching out to oral healthcare professionals to raise the topic of recycling with their clients during examinations, and encourage more people to recycle tubes as habitually as they floss.
- Conversations about toothpaste are already part of dental consultations and a simple addition of “And don’t forget, your tube is now recyclable” can strongly reinforce this positive sustainable behaviour at a moment of key relevance by normalising the behaviour. The drive follows the announcement that all toothpaste tubes manufactured are now 100% recyclable thanks to fundamental changes made to the design led by Colgate and Haleon, the makers of Sensodyne, Corsodyl and Aquafresh - in partnership with climate action NGO WRAP and industry.
Catherine David, WRAP CEO - “Dentists are the frontline of behaviour change in promoting oral healthcare practices, so we hope they’ll have a minute to encourage patients to recycle the tubes too. With millions of patients across the UK visiting oral healthcare professionals each day, having this type of subtle influence could be transformative in raising recycling rates. By informing patients that toothpaste tubes now belong in recycling, you’re not only supporting oral health but contributing to the health of the planet.”
The move is to support Simpler Recycling under which all local authorities will have to collect toothpaste tubes by the end of March 2026. WRAP is working to raise awareness of the change among the public and local authorities, as the number of councils who collect from kerbside rises to 61 during Recycle Week.
The Recycle Now website has a list of local authorities collecting toothpaste tubes in their kerbside collections if a surgery wishes to help their patients. WRAP recommends adding a small poster in the waiting area or including a line on the practice website or in any reminder emails to plant the idea before patients even sit in the chair.
Boots continues to support Recycle Week with stores across the UK accepting toothpaste tubes and other hard-to-recycle items through their Recycle at Boots scheme, where Advantage Card points can be earned for participating.
Adrian Sen, Sustainability Innovation Senior Manager "At Colgate-Palmolive, we aim to contribute to a healthier planet through sustainable practices and are dedicated to converting all of our toothpaste tubes to the recyclable plastic tube design. We are excited to have partnered with WRAP and others in the industry to make this a reality. The dental profession is a vital partner for us in encouraging healthy oral care habits as well as behaviours that promote a healthier future for all people, their pets and our planet."
Joe Muscat, Environmental Sustainability & Innovation Director at Haleon, said:
"Making toothpaste tubes recyclable is a major step forward in reducing plastic waste. At Haleon, we’re proud to have played a leading role in this industry-wide shift, helping to turn a daily routine into a more sustainable one. By working together with partners like WRAP, we’re making it easier for people to make better choices for their health—and the planet."
Notes to Editor
- The UK puts 252 million tubes of toothpaste onto the market every year. Circana, (2025), Circana Data Portal - custom data toothpaste units sold in a 52-week period in the UK. Retrieved 16/08/25
- For more than twenty years, Recycle Now has motivated people to recycle more things, more often from around the home. Using ground-breaking research and behaviour change science, it develops interventions and campaigns to motivate citizens to change their behaviour. Recycle Now is the citizen facing recycling campaign of WRAP.
- WRAP is a global environmental action NGO catalysing policy makers, businesses and individuals to transform the systems that create our food, textiles and manufactured products. Together these account for nearly 50% of global greenhouse emissions. Our goal is to enable the world to transition from the old take-make-dispose model of production to more sustainable approaches that will radically reduce waste and carbon emissions from everyday products. To do so we examine sustainability challenges through the lens of people’s day-to-day lives and create solutions that can transform entire systems to benefit the planet, nature and people. Our work includes: UK Plastics Pact, UK Food & Drink Pact, UK Textiles Pact and the campaigns Love Food Hate Waste and Recycle Now. We run Food Waste Action Week and Recycle Week.