Colgate Releases New Vegan Toothpaste In Recyclable Tube

Living meat-free means looking for product alternatives to everyday items most of us take for granted, including toothpaste. 

Yup, many toothpaste formulations aren’t vegan, as they contain ingredients like animal fat-derived glycerin and calcium phosphate made from bones, or bee-sourced propolis, an antimicrobial agent. Plus, you can't recycle toothpaste tubes as they get made from a combination of aluminum and plastic.

Colgate aims to make it easier for vegans to keep their teeth bright and healthy with two new vegan products, Smile for Good Protection and Smile For Good Whitening, which will also be a whole lot more recyclable.

Both kinds of toothpaste come in recyclable boxes and tubes, and both products are certified Vegan by The Vegan Society, which manages the vegan trademark. In addition to containing no animal ingredients, the products are also not tested on animals. While these are the only two Vegan-certified products in Colgate’s toothpaste line, parent company Colgate-Palmolive also owns Tom’s of Maine, which carries many vegan and cruelty-free products (and who incidentally have a recyclable tube as well). 

The tube utilizes high-density polyethylene (HDPE), a common and more easily recycled plastic, which Colgate has managed to form into a squeezable tube. Also unique to the Smile for Good packaging is an explanation of what each ingredient in the toothpaste does, something omnivores would probably appreciate as well. 

Colgate’s new vegan toothpaste doesn’t come cheap, as each tube will retail for about £5, about $6.50, which is over six times as expensive as a tube of Colgate’s original toothpaste. Smile for Good toothpaste is on UK store shelves now, and the company plans on making Smile for Good available in Europe as well. Colgate also aims to make all their toothpaste tubes recyclable by 2025.