Frequently Asked Questions
History
China – where silk culture originated over 4700 years ago. Zhejiang province in China is renowned for producing the finest mulberry silk, which is the gold standard in the industry due to its softness, luster, and durability. Chinese companies in Zhejiang combine ancestral methods with cutting-edge technologies to increase yield while maintaining superior quality. The best quality silk originates from mulberry silkworms, whose exclusive diet of mulberry leaves creates a luxurious texture and exceptional durability.
Prehistory: The exact date of the first use of dental floss is unknown but researchers found evidence that floss existed in prehistoric times. Grooves from floss and toothpicks have been found in the mouths of prehistoric humans. It is suggested that horse hair was used as floss and twigs were used as toothpicks to dislodge anything from the teeth.
1815: American dentist, Dr. Levi Spear Parmly introduced the idea of using waxed silk thread as floss. Later in his career, he published a book, A Practical Guide to the Management of Teeth, which emphasized the importance of brushing and flossing daily.
1940s: Due to rising costs of silk during World War II, nylon replaced silk as the main material in floss.
Flossing Made Easy
1. Measure out roughly 12 inches (30 cm) of string floss.
2. Wrap the floss around both of your middle fingers, leaving about 2 inches on each end.
3. Grip the floss in the middle between your thumbs and forefingers. This will allow you to easily maneuver the floss in between the gaps of your teeth.
4. Insert the floss between two teeth. Press the floss against each tooth, curving it to get under the gums.
5. Gently but firmly rub the floss from the bottom of the gap to the top in a gentle back-and-forth movement.
6. Adjust the string as you move from gap to gap, using a clean portion of floss when plaque begins to build up on the string.
Flossing too roughly with any dental floss can damage your gums, or even cause gingival clefts. Never ‘saw’ at the base of the tooth like a lumberjack sawing a log – that’s just cutting into the gum. Also, avoid ‘snapping’ the floss between teeth, which puts pressure on your gums and can cause them to recede.
If you suffer from a cut, rinse your mouth with salt water or an antiseptic rinse. Apply pressure to the area and ice. This will help stop the bleeding and help with any pain. If you continue to bleed, consult with your dental professional.
For best results, floss first before brushing. Flossing helps clear the gaps between your teeth before you use toothpaste, encouraging greater fluoride retention. By flossing first, you loosen food, plaque, and bacteria between your teeth, which makes removing those particles easier for your toothbrush.
Use String Floss Instead of Floss Picks
If you have the choice, use string floss instead of floss picks. String floss is easier to maneuver, allowing you to tackle the gum line and reach difficult crevices. Use a long piece of string floss so you can use a clean portion of it for each tooth. Individual floss picks only contain a small amount of floss, which means you reintroduce plaque as you go from tooth to tooth.
FYI: Claims by some brands that their floss picks are compostable is GREENWASHING! The floss itself will always be petroleum-based nylon or polyester, because real silk will crumble if heat-fused onto the handle.
First of all, charcoal can be made from any organic matter. Secondly, the description “Bamboo Charcoal Floss” is very misleading. Bamboo charcoal is not the thread itself – charcoal derived from burning bamboo is infused into the thread. Thirdly, the thread is made of polyester or nylon – a petroleum-based plastic which is not compostable. Plastic can be bio-based, but chemically is still a plastic. Since silk floss is never infused with charcoal, the best material for infusion is nylon thread. Corn PLA (PolyLactic Acid, a bio-based plastic) is 100% compostable, but is significantly weaker than either silk or nylon.
Natural silk may be sensitive to heat, but it doesn’t burn very well. If you expose it to an open flame, it will smolder reluctantly, but will extinguish almost the moment you pull it away. Scorched silk fiber is black and there will be a hard, black knot at the end of the thread that you can crumble between your fingers. Burnt silk smells like burnt hair. Wool behaves in the same way as silk when put to the fire test, but you aren’t likely to confuse wool and silk – wool is heavier, warmer, rougher, itchier, and just plain woolier than silk.
Synthetic silk imitations made of polyester or nylon will melt as soon as they near the flame. They burn much more readily than silk. As with silk, there will be a black nub at the end of the thread after burning, but this one is hard and you can’t crumble it between your fingers. The strong odor of burnt synthetic filament is not at all like that of burnt silk.
Cellulose-based imitation silk: Rayon, cupro, modal, and acetate are common materials for making silk-like fabrics. Betraying their woody origins, they behave like paper when burnt – they burst into flame, the smoke smells like wood smoke or paper smoke, and when extinguished, a fine gray ash remains. Acetate fabrics – pretty, but fragile, silk imitators – can be identified by exposing them to acetone or an acetone-based nail polish remover, which will cause acetate to dissolve.
Personal & Environmental Health
COMPOSTABLE
Composting is a way to turn items made of natural materials back into a nutrient rich soil. Often times the compost is for food scraps, but other items that are fully compostable include yard scraps, dead flowers, items made of untreated wood, and those made of pure cotton. While starting with food scraps is the easiest, the more you look around the more you will find items for other parts of your life that are completely compostable.
Compostable items are great because instead of going to landfill or needing to be processed and turned into something else, they actually breakdown themselves in a natural setting (or in an industrial facility) to create something useful right away.
But, what happens if you have items that are compostable but don’t have access to composting. Side note: you can create a compost bin in your own backyard (or under your sink). We know that isn’t for everyone though. So, what happens if these items end up in just in your standard trash bin? You might think that it’s still an improvement and they will break down, right? Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that’s not exactly the case.
Compostable items break down into nutrient rich soil only if they have the right conditions. And a traditional landfill is not a place with the right conditions. Industrial facilities have the optimal conditions for composting. These facilities regulate temperature, moisture, and air flow in order to ensure a compostable item breaks down as fast as possible. At-home compost is more prone to temperature/moisture/air flow changes and might not break down as quickly as it would in an industrial setting.
Composting works best when the items have access to oxygen and are regularly being turned over. A landfill is basically the opposite. It’s an anaerobic environment where most of the pile actually doesn’t have access to oxygen. That means that if your compostable takeout container ends up in the landfill, it won’t break down as intended. Instead, it will mostly likely just act like a plastic container and stay around for a lot longer than intended.
So, while recognizing compostable items is a good first step, purchasing and using compostable items in place of other items has the biggest impact when they actually end up in a compost pile. Although, we do want to mention that the production of plastic is pretty nasty for a lot of reasons, so opting for compostable items made of cotton, bamboo, and even PLA (PolyLactic Acid – that vegetable based plastic cup and container you see at restaurants), is probably still better for the environment and your health.
BOTTOM LINE
If we were to rank which ones are best for the planet and in turn our health, we’d say first look for items that are compostable, recyclable, and lastly biodegradable. Compostable items, if properly disposed of, will break down completely and can them be used to grow more resources. Recyclable items can be turned into raw materials that can then be used to make new things without needing to create completely new resources. And finally, biodegradable options will eventually break down, but we don’t know when and there is no plan to use them for any additional benefit.
SOURCE: Center for Environmental Health
BIODEGRADABLE
The definition of biodegradable is a substance that can break down naturally without causing any harm. This is very similar to compostable, but the biggest difference is that what it breaks down to doesn’t cause harm as opposed to starting with an organically occurring materials. Therefore, man-made or chemically produced items can still be considered biodegradable, while not necessarily being compostable. This is like a square being a rectangle but a rectangle not being a square. Those items that are compostable are also biodegradable, but not everything biodegradable is compostable.
Again, biodegradable options are still a step in the right direction. It does mean that the ingredients break down over time and when they do break down, the base components are not harmful to the environment.
One drawback of biodegradable materials is that there is not necessarily a time-frame for when the items will break down. It could be many years before they start to degrade. In most cases, biodegradable isn’t really saying much about the product.
BOTTOM LINE
If we were to rank which ones are best for the planet and in turn our health, we’d say first look for items that are compostable, recyclable, and lastly biodegradable. Compostable items, if properly disposed of, will break down completely and can them be used to grow more resources. Recyclable items can be turned into raw materials that can then be used to make new things without needing to create completely new resources. And finally, biodegradable options will eventually break down, but we don’t know when and there is no plan to use them for any additional benefit.
SOURCE: Center for Environmental Health
RECYCLABLE
Recycling is the process of taking a product and breaking it down to use it again, often as a raw material. We all know that we can recycle paper, plastic, and cans. In most places, recycling facilities can also deal with glass. All of this is great, but let’s break down the concept a little bit more. Quick note, each city is slightly different and you should check exactly what can and can’t be recycled in your neighborhood before you just assume you are good to go.
Tossing something you think or hope can be recycled into the recycling bin is often wishful or aspirational recycling. While your heart is in the right place, doing this might actually be worse than just trashing something you aren’t clear on. Why? Because that one iffy thing can actually be enough to compromise a full batch of recycling, which could mean everything ends up in the landfill instead of just the one questionable item. In those situations, the best option would be to confirm before you dispose of it. And, if your neighborhood doesn’t recycle it, ask your city to start accepting those items. But, in the meantime, if you don’t know, don’t just hope it can be recycled.
Back to the topic at hand, what is actually recyclable? Most plastics that hold their shape can be recycled (like water bottles, food containers, bottles for household items, etc.). In some places, they have even started being able to accept items like plastic grocery bags, shrink wrap, and plastic wrap if it is packaged correctly. Other commonly accepted items for recycling include paper, cardboard, unbroken glass and metal (including tinfoil if it’s clean and in a large enough ball).
Some common items that need special recycling (but are in fact recyclable) include: batteries, electronics, and fabric (and clothing). Check with your waste management provider to see what can and can’t be recycled in your neighborhood.
BOTTOM LINE
If we were to rank which ones are best for the planet and in turn our health, we’d say first look for items that are compostable, recyclable, and lastly biodegradable. Compostable items, if properly disposed of, will break down completely and can them be used to grow more resources. Recyclable items can be turned into raw materials that can then be used to make new things without needing to create completely new resources. And finally, biodegradable options will eventually break down, but we don’t know when and there is no plan to use them for any additional benefit.
SOURCE: Center for Environmental Health
NATURAL: from nature; not artificial or involving anything made or caused by people. Silk is a natural fiber!
If a food grade product is described as natural, it means it has no artificial chemical substances added to it – no PTFE and no PFAS!
Per-and-polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a collective name for a broad class of man-made chemicals of emerging concern that have recently been in the spotlight due to potential human and environmental health risks. While the public attention to PFAS is relatively new, the chemicals have been used globally since the 1940s. PFAS are considered emerging contaminants because research is ongoing to better understand the impacts they pose to human and animal health and the environment. PFAS chemicals can be complex but are often characterized by having strongly bonded carbon (C) and fluorine (F) atoms in the ‘tail’ and water-liking functional groups in the ‘head’ (Figure 1). Functional groups refer to a group of atoms within a molecule that have their own characteristic properties, for instance, a carboxylate functional group that consists of a carbonyl group (C=O) and a hydroxyl group (OH).
Source: Understanding PFAS – What They Are, Their Impact, and What We Can Do
PolyTetraFluoroEthylene (or PTFE) is not better or worse than Teflon® because they are one and the same thing – different only in name and nothing else.
More info: Is It Safe to Use Products Containing Teflon Coating?
PFOA, PFOS, and Related PFAS Chemicals | American Cancer Society
Silk is a natural fiber that is made from the cocoons of silkworms. The production process involves boiling the cocoons to extract the silk fibers, which requires a lot of energy and water. Additionally, the waste produced during the process, such as the pupae and leftover cocoon material, can be used as animal feed or fertilizer. Therefore, the production process of silk has a relatively low environmental impact. On the other hand, nylon is a synthetic fiber made from petrochemicals, which requires a lot of energy to produce. The production process also generates a significant amount of greenhouse gases and toxic pollutants. Moreover, nylon production generates a large amount of waste that takes hundreds of years to decompose, such as microplastics that pollute the oceans and harm marine life.
Source: Silk Vs Nylon: Unveiling the Ultimate Fabric Showdown
Ahimsa or Peace silk is the method by which silk is harvested where the moth is allowed to mature and fly away.
This discussion is moot because the flightless and domesticated Bombyx mori is used for harvesting commercial silk, whereas Bombyx mandarina – the wild cousin of Bombyx mori can fly.
Silk pupae excrete a chemical which dissolves the silk – enabling it to emerge from the cocoon. However, waiting for the Bombyx mandarina moth to fly away increases the time to harvest by about 10 days and reduces the quantity of harvestable silk by 85% or more, resulting in a much more expensive product. This makes Bombyx mandarina not economically viable for commercial uses.
Peppermint oil has antibacterial properties that can inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria in your mouth.
- Peppermint reduces plaque and tartar.
- Alleviates Gum Inflammation.
- Soothes Toothaches.
- Enhances Saliva Production.
- Supports Overall Oral Hygiene.
PETA claims “The only truly cruelty-free options are those that aren’t derived from animals. Fortunately, there are many luxurious animal-friendly fabrics available, such as nylon, polyester, Tencel, milkweed seed-pod fibers, silk-cotton tree filaments and rayon.”
Since bio-based plastics are much weaker than their petroleum-based counterparts, consumers will choose to buy petroleum-based “forever” plastics because they perceive it as higher quality – despite their higher global negative impact upon all animal life. Manufacturers are therefore financially incentivized to produce more “forever” plastic and put the burden of cleanup upon society.
Having said that, we must weigh the cost to the environment of water-boiling a moth, or crab, or lobster which are ultimately used for food or fertilizer, versus petrochemical poisons like herbicides, insecticides, and rodenticides. Petrochemical poisons kill all the way up the food chain!
China has adopted a very low-waste symbiotic mulberry dyke-fishpond farming practice for approximately 2500 years.
Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems – Zhejiang Huzhou Dyke and Fishpond System
The answer is NO for anyone asking if a bucket of ink used in any print facility is recyclable, compostable, or biodegradable. The most eco-friendly ink is black water-based soy ink – with a caveat that the absolute minimum amount is used.
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