Disposable Toilet Brushes

The economics, ergonomics, and ecology of disposable toilet brushes.

Home cleaning product companies have been heavily advertising their new disposable toilet brushes over the past 2 years. But are disposable toilet brushes really necessary? Most people would say no, and many product and consumer reviews suggest that disposable toilet brushes are more expensive and less efficient than standard bristle brushes.

The economics of disposable toilet brushes

There's a reason cleaning product companies would prefer you switch to disposable toilet brushes: they cost more.

A standard plastic toilet brush that costs just a few dollars typically lasts for several years. Disposable toilet brushes — commonly advertised as a "toilet cleaning system," as if they were some unfathomable future technology — typically have an initial cost of around $10.

But where the cost really adds up is in buying refills to replace the disposable brush heads. With the Clorox Toilet Wand, for example, a refill of 6 sponges costs $3. That's not exactly Vegas money at first, but as the refills pile up during the year, the cost disparity between disposable toilet brushes and standard toilet brushes becomes much greater.

The ergonomics of disposable toilet brushes

A common complaint cited by users of disposable toilet brushes is that they're flimsy and ineffective. This shouldn't be that surprising. After all, disposable toilet brushes are made to be disposed. Companies are not going to make disposable products that are also very durable. It's not economical for them.

Ergonomically then, disposable toilet brushes — particularly the flushable kind — are often soft and awkward, which makes them difficult to use. Consumer reports commonly state that cleaning a toilet with disposable toilet brushes can take twice as long as with standard brushes, because disposable toilet brushes are ineffective at cleaning under the rim and aren't sturdy enough for hard scrubbing.

The ecology of disposable toilet brushes

This one's a no brainer, and arguably the biggest reason to avoid using disposable toilet brushes. Disposable toilet brushes drastically increase the amount of waste generated by cleaning your toilet. Whether they're being thrown in the trash or flushed down the toilet, many disposable toilet brush heads will be used over the same period of time as a single standard toilet brush.

From an ecological perspective, disposable toilet brushes make less than zero sense. They're a disposable product created to fill an artificially created need at a higher economic cost with greater waste of material resources. The only winners in that scenario are the companies who sell disposable toilet brushes.

What plus side?

The one advantage most often attributed to disposable toilet brushes is that they eliminate the need to keep yucky germ-infested toilet brushes in the bathroom. But this is really more of a psychological marketing ploy than it is a significant problem.

The average home contains 5 million particles of dust and dirt per square foot. Even the money that we handle everyday has been found to typically contain traces of food, blood, and cocaine. Bacteria is everywhere. The primary concern should be whether this bacteria poses us any danger. And with toilet brushes, that's simply not the case.

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