Industrial designer Patrick Triato founded Goodwell Co. in 2015 to build a more sustainable toothbrush. The manual brush he came up with, the $25 Premium Toothbrush, features a recycled aluminum handle and a changeable, biodegradable brush head—a design that Triato hoped would cut down on the 50 million pounds of plastic produced by toothbrushes every year. The company soon expanded to make the entire tooth care process more environmentally friendly, releasing a toothpaste in a bio-resin, recyclable tube, and plant-based flossers. But among the expanding lineup of oral care products Goodwell offered, one staple was missing: The electric toothbrush.
“Customers were giving us feedback that they loved our products, but their dentists were recommending they use an electric toothbrush,” Triato says. “When I looked into the market, it was like ‘oh wow, there’s literally nothing in the electric toothbrush market that’s remotely sustainable.'”
It may well be worth the wait: While the Be. Brush’s heads will need to be replaced every few months for hygienic reasons (like any toothbrush), the body itself should last for a long, long time. “We expect it to work for 10 plus years, though we’re working to validate that right now,” McArthur says. “Once a battery [in an ordinary electric brush] starts degrading, it degrades very quickly. But when our spring starts ‘degrading,’ it just lasts for slightly less time. But it will still be a giant steel spring, and will still keep working long after that.”