Eco-design of a toilet brush

Eco-design concerns all fields. And sometimes unusual objects, and yet we use them every day. In this article, we will talk about BBB La Brosse. The first eco-designed toilet brush in the world!

An eco toilet brush made in France

The BBB Brush has been designed from an eco-design approach. This means that the environmental impact of the brush has been reduced to its maximum over its entire life cycle. The brush is made of recycled and bio-sourced plastic. The head is made of a material based on beet filament waste. It also wears out less quickly than a conventional brush. Mainly because this brush with 120 pimples has a shape perfectly adapted to clean toilet bowls.

Optimal efficiency

This brush has been designed to have an optimal efficiency coupled with a minimal environmental impact. In terms of, the BBB Brush was inspired by nature for its overall shape. Its design allows it to reach areas previously inaccessible to conventional toilet brushes. The head of the brush is shaped like a "duck's beak". The flow is guided by inlaid ribs, similar to a tree leaf. Result: no drops when extracted! As you may have noticed, the BBB Brush is a toilet brush without bristles. They have been replaced by spikes of different lengths on both sides. This offers an optimal efficiency of friction and allows to reduce the use of cleaning products.

The advantages of the BBB Brush?

• Contributes to better toilet hygiene;
• Removes dirt from every corner;
• Easy to use;
• Does not get dirty after use;
• Rests clean on its base or hung on the wall;
• Does not spread germs;
• Does not drip;
• The toilet paper does not remain hung up;
• Entirely made in France.

The eco-design of the BBB Brush

The objectives of the eco-design approach for this toilet brush were twofold. First, the main environmental impacts of the brush had to be identified in order to deduce the main lines of the specifications. Then, all that remained was to establish a short and long term action plan, in order to consider the entire life cycle of the product.

The environmental issues of the BBB Brosse

The goal of eco-design is to bring together environmental assessment and the design of the product itself. Each object manufactured in the world will have an impact on the planet, from its manufacture to its recycling. It is a question of being innovative to reduce the environmental impacts as much as possible, while maintaining an optimal experience for the user. To understand the environmental issues of the BBB Brush, we first had to carry out an environmental assessment of the brush. That is to say, to understand the impacts of a standard toilet brush on the environment, considering its entire life cycle. These first results allowed us to identify the main factors of impact on the environment of a toilet brush. Thus, the following main impacts were found :

• The use of specific raw materials;
• The consequences of postal transport;
• The coupled use of chemical products.

These 3 factors were the starting point for designing a more environmentally friendly toilet brush. From there, the following guidelines were added to the product specifications.

• A list of adapted raw materials. Moreover, the raw material selected for the BBB Brush is 20% less dense than an elastomeric bioplastic. This makes the product lighter and therefore reduces the environmental impact of transport;
• Coupled with this, a specific design of the brush has allowed to reduce the total volume of the brush by 11%;
• Raising customers' awareness of the environmental issues related to the use of chemical cleaning products. It is easy to make a cleaning solution based on vinegar and alcohol;
• The selection of a water-repellent material for the brush head. It allows to limit the presence of drops on the bowl, and thus to limit the cleaning of this one. This leads to fewer chemicals and less paper consumption!

Concrete results

In the end, we obtain a toilet brush with a unique design, for which the environmental gains exceed 15% for all impact indicators, without any transfer! Because in eco-design, it is important to make sure that the reduction of an environmental impact does not increase another one, so that the global balance of the product remains positive. The of the BBB Brush has allowed us to obtain the following results on the 3 main environmental impact factors:

• Human toxicity: reduced to 52%;
• Particulate matter emissions: reduced by 50%;
• Resource depletion: reduced by 18%.

And finally, by educating users on the use of natural cleaning products, environmental impacts could be reduced by up to 29% compared to the baseline scenario. The BBB Brush, the first ed toilet brush and the first toilet brush created by a woman.