Welcome to the next stage within the P&G CEO Challenge 2021-2022.

In this step, you will

need to complete a case study test that will challenge your problem-solving skills. Please read
the following information carefully.

Team:

Your team must have 3 members. Teams that are smaller or larger will not be considered.

Please be prepared to provide your email address while registering. We encourage diversity in
all its forms for successful teams.

Eligibility:

All students in India from the following B-schools are eligible to participate in this challenge: IIM
Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, XLRI Jamshedpur, IIM Lucknow, SPJIMR, ISB, NITIE,
MICA, SIBM Pune, and SJMSOM.

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and trust. We expect all participants to uphold the highest standards of integrity and
trustworthiness as they prepare themselves and compete in all portions portion of the
competition.

If there is ever any situation where a violation of these values occurs by even a single member
of the team, or if a violation of these values seems to have happened, P&G reserves the right to
eliminate the entire team from the competition without any question.

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You will have 60 minutes to analyze the case study and complete the test.

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Do not spend too much time on a question.

If you are not sure how to answer a question, skip it and revisit it later. If you are still not sure
how to answer a question, exclude all options that seem incorrect and choose from the
remaining options.
Case study test structure:

Case study – approximately 15 pages of text, tables and charts about the problem-based
situation.
16 test questions. You should allocate approximately 55 minutes to complete the first two parts
of the case study test.
They will include problems of different types:
Text and data interpretation
Finding evidence in the text and data
Calculations
You will need to give answers in different ways:
One correct answer from multiple options (radio buttons)
Several correct answers from multiple options (checkboxes)
Understanding the case study and questions

To answer most questions, you will need to search for the data from the relevant parts of the
case study.
Due to different levels of approximation in some questions, correct options can differ slightly
from your calculations. Please choose the closest one.
In some ‘choose one’ questions many options can apply. Please choose the most correct and
exhaustive answer.
How to prepare:

You will have only one attempt at completing the test. Take five minutes to prepare yourself to
get the best possible score:

It is strongly recommended to use a laptop, rather than a smartphone, a tablet or any other
mobile device.
Make sure your internet connection is stable.
Prepare paper and pens to take notes.
You can use a calculator or any software you like.
You can use the Internet, but keep in mind that data in the case study could be distorted. Using
data from open sources can bias your work.
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complete the test as a core team with no additional help.
Please proceed to the next page only if you are ready to complete the test.

We wish you every success in passing the test.

Disclaimer:

All information provided in the case study is used for test purposes only and may not be an
accurate representation of reality. The facts, data, opinions, characters, company names, etc.
were created for the use of this case study only. Any resemblance to actual persons or
companies is coincidental.
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Challenge hero india 2022
STRATEGIC CASE STUDY
INDIA
P&G CEO Challenge 2021-2022: Online Case Study (INDIA)

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Case Study: Introduction
From: <mickey&pg.com>

To: <command&pg.com>

Hey!

Welcome to P&G! I'm so glad that more and more young and ambitious people like you are
joining us!

My name is Mickey, and I will be your mentor during your work on the project. I'm so excited that
you're joining our Oral Care team! You can ask me any questions about working at P&G in
general and the work we do in Oral Care. Oral Care is Paste, Manual Oral Care, and Power
Oral Care, and it is one of the most innovative business segments of the company.

The plan is for you to join the Oral-B team and help your colleagues work on a significant
sustainability challenge to reposition Oral-B through making its products more environmentally
friendly by improving packaging or introducing reuse and recycling initiatives. I do hope that
you'll enjoy it.

Unfortunately, I can't contact you via video chat today because I'm taking part in a major
International Sustainability online conference. But please, don't worry! I've got some really
exciting tasks planned for you, which will allow you to immerse yourself into our world and
prepare yourself for the big challenge we must handle at Oral-B that involves all its product
categories. Meanwhile, you can dive into the topic and look through some market insights and
Recycling and Sustainability cases in P&G and Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) in
general.
You certainly know that Procter & Gamble is the world's largest FMCG company. Its Health Care
category includes the Oral Care sub-category and is one of the five business portfolios within
P&G and it represents 12% of the business. You may also know that P&G has the largest lineup
of leading brands in the industry, with 23 brands that have over $1 billion in annual sales (our
so-called "billion-dollar brands"). There are 2 "billion-dollar brands" that belong to the Oral Care
portfolio. Those are Crest and Oral-B.

At P&G, sustainability is embedded in how we do business. Our commitment is to leverage our

scale to enable and inspire a positive impact on the environment and the five billion people our
brands touch each day around the world. We provide and support sustainability awareness in
our consumers in multiple areas: energy consumption, minimizing consumption and waste,
recycling, avoiding plastic etc.

This mission has become even more important due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. People
are now more focused on health and hygiene than ever before. This includes personal hygiene,
health and nutrition improvement, through doing more sports, various diets and habit
improvements, increased interest in product ingredients and, therefore, natural products across
personal care, including bio, organic, natural ingredients etc.

In 2010 P&G set goals related to climate, water and waste, and we have made great progress
there. For example, P&G made a commitment to making 90% of product packaging either
recyclable or having programs put in place that will create the ability to recycle it. We have
achieved 88% of this goal and have a strong, ongoing effort to further increase recyclability. So
much so that we have recently committed ourselves to Ambition 2030, our most audacious set
of sustainability goals yet!

Oral-B is testing circular solutions for its electric rechargeable and manual toothbrushes. The
manual Oral-B CLIC features a durable handle equipped with a mechanism that allows
consumers to exchange the brush head. The Loop, a global packaging and shopping circular
platform that is already working with P&G brands in the US, will recycle used brush heads from
both manual and electrical brushes. In several European countries, Oral-B is proposing to its
consumers to replace batteries in their electric rechargeable toothbrushes to increase the life of
the products, rather than buying a new one. Toothpastes and tubes are a tougher challenge for
recycling, but P&G is researching solutions there also.

All P&G brands, and the Oral Care category in particular, care about environmental challenges,
because resources are finite, and consumption is growing every year. Our competitors are also
providing environmentally friendly solutions, and we need and want to improve our factories and
our products to be the leader and make our world a better place.

With this in mind, what I'd like you to do is to review the data and find possible solutions for the
challenges that the company, and the Oral-B brand in particular, are currently facing. On
Monday, we will have a team meeting where we will discuss the findings, and I'm looking
forward to hearing your ideas.
In order to immerse you in the subject, I'd like to share some information on the key market
trends and the Oral-B brand's key strengths and current challenges. Please e-mail me if you
have any questions!

See you!

Mickey Jones

Oral-B Regional Sustainability Manager

Question 1: Based on the information given in Mickey's email, which statement can be
considered definitely correct about the P&G?

P&G has more billion-dollar brands than any FMCG company in the industry
One of the reasons consumers have started to pay more attention to health and hygiene is the
increased likelihood of infection
P&G has set up a dedicated toothbrush recycling center
P&G had 100 % zero manufacturing waste to landfill by 2020
About P&G
The Procter & Gamble Company is focused on providing branded consumer packaged goods of
superior quality and value to improve the lives of consumers around the world. The company
was incorporated in Ohio in 1905, having been built from a business founded in 1837 by William
Procter and James Gamble.

The company's purpose is to improve the lives of its consumers and today delivers this for 5
billion consumers in 180 countries through its leading, billion-dollar brands.

The company's 65 individual brands are organized into 10 product categories:

Fabric care
Home care
Baby care
Feminine care
Family care
Grooming
Oral care
Personal health care
Hair care
Personal and skin care
The business model relies on the continued growth and success of existing brands and
products, as well as the creation of new innovative products. The markets and industry
segments in which P&G offers products are highly competitive. In the first quarter of 2020, the
company's sales grew to reach $17.8 billion whilst delivering strong top-line growth, profit
margin expansion and cash productivity enabling it to increase its outlook for fiscal year results.

Figure 1: Procter & Gamble Quarterly Sales

P&G keeps track of the environmental sustainability of its own activities as well as of its
suppliers. In 2018 P&G released its new sustainability goals called Ambition 2030. These
broad-reaching goals have the purpose to enable and inspire positive impact on the
environment and society while creating value for P&G as a company, for its customers and
consumers.

By 2030, P&G plan to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable diseases by one
third, through prevention and treatment, as well as promoting mental health and well-being. The
P&G Safeguard Clean Hands Healthy Kids Campaign teaches hygiene to prevent childhood
illness, absenteeism and even death. The program was launched in China based on global
research that washing with soap and water can prevent nearly 4 million children a year from
dying before their 5th birthday. Today, the program is in schools across China, the Philippines,
Pakistan, and Mexico, reaching 4.5 million students a year.
P&G improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity for climate
change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning. Getting consumers to wash
their clothes at low temperatures and use high-efficiency machine cycles represents a
significant opportunity to reduce energy consumption and its associated greenhouse gas
emissions. In 2010, P&G set a goal to turn 70% of all machine wash loads into high-efficiency
quick and cold-water cycles by 2020 and was already able to reach this goal in 2019.
P&G has already exceeded several of its 2020 goals early, such as reducing water use in
manufacturing facilities by 20% against a 2010 baseline. GHG emissions have been cut by 16%
in this time period, while more than 80% of its global manufacturing sites have achieved
zero-waste-to-landfill status.

In an effort to address two of the world's most pressing environmental challenges—finite

resources and growing consumption — P&G has focused its ambitious goals in these specific
areas.

100% of leadership brands will enable and inspire responsible consumption: each brand should
implement four Brand Fundamentals, which means long-term integration of meaningful and
measurable social and environmental impacts into the brand strategy and experience.
Reduce our use of virgin petroleum plastic in packaging by 50%: P&G estimate that the use of
over 300,000 tons of virgin plastic can be avoided through light weighting, increasing recycled
content (PCR), driving conversion to more concentrated product forms and using alternative
materials. P&G plan to achieve 100% recyclable or reusable packaging by 2030. As of 2019,
88% of P&G packages are considered recyclable.
Reduce our footprint and aim for circular solutions based on regeneration and restoration: 100%
renewable electricity and cutting GHG emissions in half at P&G sites. P&G's sites will deliver a
35% increase in water efficiency and source at least 5 billion liters of water from circular
sources. As for 2020, P&G is purchasing 100% renewable electricity in the U.S., Canada, and
Western Europe.

®️ ®️
Protect and enhance the forests: P&G wants to increase use of the Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC ) certified fiber to 75% across all Family Care brands by 2025.
Carbon neutral for the decade: the company plans to cut GHG emissions in half at P&G sites, it
will address the remaining GHG emissions – an estimated 30 million metric tons over the next
decade – by advancing a portfolio of natural climate solutions that leverage the power of nature:
forests, wetlands, grasslands and peatlands.
Advance recycling solutions for Absorbent Hygiene Products: P&G will use technology invented
by the company's joint venture Fater in Italy, which recycles used absorbent hygiene products to
create new products and materials, in 10 cities across the globe by 2030.
Create solutions so no packaging finds its way to the ocean: P&G is partnering with
organizations that are already finding ways to stem the flow of plastic to the world's
oceans—like the Trash Free Seas Alliance in Southeast Asia.
Question 2: Calculate water savings in P&G manufacturing in 2020 if the company used 170
000 m3 of clean water on its plants in 2010.

60 000
34 000
28 000
11 000
Question 3: How much did P&G's sales increase by in Q1 2020, compared to Q1 2019?

24,2 %
12,4 %
6,5 %
1,6 %
Question 4: Which of the following is TRUE about P&G's sustainability goals? Choose all
answers that apply.

22% of P&G packages cannot be recycled or reused.

One of the company's implemented initiatives to inspire responsible consumption is to produce
detergents for washing in cold water.
P&G is planning to achieve a reduction in the use of virgin petroleum plastic by changing the
shape and material of the packaging.
P&G implements environmental initiatives in collaboration with international organizations and
joint ventures.
Oral Care Market
The global oral care market is projected to reach USD 53.3 billion by 2025 from USD 45.8 billion
in 2020, at a CAGR of 3.1%. The growth could be explained by increasing dental healthcare
awareness, rising dental healthcare expenditure, and increasing the number of dental clinics.
Figure 2: Size of the Global Oral Care Market from 2019 to 2025 (in billion U.S. dollars)
Regional Markets
Asia Pacific
China
Japan
Australia
Rest of Asia Pacific (RoAPAC)
Europe
DACH – Germany, Austria, and Switzerland
FBNL – France, Belgium, Netherlands
UK/Nordics
Italy
Spain
Russia
Rest of Europe (RoE)
North America
US
Canada
Latin America
India, Middle East and Africa
Distribution Channels
Consumer stores
Hyper and Supermarkets
Retail Pharmacies and Drug Stores
Electronic Stores
Online distribution
Direct-to-consumer
Marketplaces
Products
Toothpaste
Manual Toothbrushes
Battery-Powered Toothbrushes
Rechargeable Electric Toothbrushes and Replacement Heads
Dental Flosses
Breath Fresheners / Mouthwashes / Rinse Products
Prescription and Non-Prescription Cosmetic Dental Whitening Products
Others
The Asia Pacific oral care market is expected to show the highest growth rate during the
forecast period from 2020 to 2025. The high growth rate can be attributed to the increase in the
size of geriatric population associated with edentulism, a growing prevalence of dental caries
and other periodontal diseases, increasing healthcare expenditure (coupled with rising
disposable income), rising awareness about oral healthcare, and willingness to spend more on
dental care. The analytics say that 36% of the market growth will come from Asia Pacific region.
The Latin American and Middle Eastern and African markets exhibit significant growth
opportunities owing to the improving dental infrastructure in these regions.

North America holds the largest revenue share in terms of region. This can be attributed to the
presence of sophisticated electric toothbrushes, supportive government initiatives, coupled with
relatively higher disposable income in the region, and the presence of skilled dentists and dental
hygienists. A picture that is also similar in Europe. According to the American Dental Hygienists'
Association, in the U.S there are nearly 150,000 registered dental hygienists. They encourage
oral hygiene by providing a proper dental plan and hygiene techniques, thus further propelling
product demand

Figure 3: Global Oral Care Market Share, by Region, 2019, %

The oral care market is highly competitive, with a growing number of players operating at the
regional level. New local players in India, China, and Brazil offer oral care products at
competitive prices compared to the global players.

Oral hygiene awareness is an important contributor to market growth. Dentists and key players
in the market conduct various seminars and programs to increase awareness of dental hygiene
and the need for improvement of Oral Care habits as well as demonstrating newly launched and
technologically advanced products. This increases the adoption of healthy oral care routines
among consumers and promotes interest in new products.

The online distribution share shows the biggest growth when compared to other distribution
channels. The significant growth in the e-commerce sector is due to the increasing number of
internet users and its advantages, such as low cost, free delivery and the availability of
multi-brand oral care products. However, consumer stores continued to account for the largest
share of the oral care market in 2019. The large share that consumer stores hold in the case of
oral care products can be attributed to the large number of stores across the globe and their
easy access.

Question 5: Calculate the absolute growth of the oral care market attributed to the Asia Pacific
region in 2025 compared to 2020.

10 billion
7,5 billion
5 billion
2,7 billion
Question 6: What was the largest distribution channel for the oral care market in 2019?

Online distribution
Retail pharmacies
Dental dispensaries
Consumer stores
Question 7: What is the key advantage for Consumer stores?

Easily accessible
A large number of different brands
Low cost
Help from the dental hygienists
Question 8: Calculate the size of Asia Pacific oral care market if the oral care market in Europe
was worth nearly USD 12.9 billion in 2019.

USD 6 672,4 million

USD 4 448,3 million
USD 1 141,4 million
USD 790,2 million
Question 9: According to the text, what direct impact do workshops conducted by dentists have
on the oral care market? You can choose several answers.

Dentists demonstrate how to use new technology-based oral care devices.

They tell their clients the correct teeth-brushing mechanics and timing.
Dentists recommend patients comprehensive oral care, consisting of several steps and
products.
They show people several oral care products from different brands for them to choose.
Oral-B Today
Oral-B is a brand of oral hygiene products, which has been owned by P&G since 2006. It was
founded by a dentist in 1950 and now Oral-B is spread across 60 countries. Oral-B's
toothbrushes are used by more dentists and hygienists worldwide than any other.

Oral-B portfolio includes:

paste
manual toothbrushes
electric toothbrushes (and replacement heads)
rinse
floss
irrigators (water jets for interdental cleaning)
children's range
The brand story of Oral-B started with an important health and consumer driven improvement of
toothbrushes. Oral-B introduced end-rounded bristle filaments that are gentler and safer for
gums. Health and consumer relevant innovation has been an important driver for the brand
since. As a result, the biggest strength that Oral-B has is their top of the line electric
toothbrushes. The company successfully provides its products to people looking for the best
quality and innovation, not only in the power oral care sector, but also the manual oral care
sector, as using a manual toothbrush remains the most common way of brushing teeth for many
people around the world.
Oral-B focuses on solving problems commonly associated with toothbrush use and has a
plethora of products that are essential to do this in oral care. The company introduces new
features regularly, which reaffirms its brand image as the most innovative oral-care brand.

Figure 4: Oral-B Consumer Type

Consumer perception of Oral-B is that it's a very reliable brand with high quality and dentist
endorsed products. Because it is seen as a premium brand, not everybody sees it as an
affordable brand for themselves. However, the Oral-B brand has products at virtually all relevant
consumer price tiers.

The brand has a huge presence at almost every location where people usually go and shop for
the products for their daily needs: small stores, hypermarkets, supermarkets, malls, electronic
stores and shopping centers. Oral-B brushes are also seen at Dentist's clinics. Though P&G has
a considerable and relatively well-spread distribution network, the Oral-B brand has less
penetration in the rural segment in comparison to cities.

Also, P&G supports several initiatives aimed at improving oral care for consumers and providing
professional help for its customers. One of the brightest examples is dentalcare.com. This is a
web portal designed by the brands Oral-B and Crest for use by dentists and students around the
world. It delivers education, research outcomes, news, and product information to equip dental
professionals with important information and experiences to better help their patients.

Question 10: You have several consumer profiles. Based on the information given in the text,
which of them are more likely to be Oral-B consumers? You can choose several answers.

An active, building a career in a big city, 35-year old man, who is environmentally conscious.
A 21-year old student of IT, living with his parents and interested in video games.
An active, looks-conscious 50-year old man who suffers from dental problems and visits the
dentist every week for professional attention.
A 40-year old woman who has two children and provides her household with the newest
technological solutions.
Question 11: According to the data above, what is the most complete description of the Oral-B
brand strengths?

Produces premium quality oral care products using innovative technologies at an affordable
price.
Makes toothbrushes used and recommended by dentists around the world.
Frequent innovations in a low involvement product like toothbrushes and focuses on improving
oral health.
Approved brand image to compete successfully with competitors' electric brushes and manual
toothbrushes.
Recycling and Sustainability
In line with its sustainable development strategy, P&G is working to reduce the use of primary
plastics in its packaging and to keep them from entering the ocean.

TerraCycle and P&G are working together on a recycling program for Old Spice, Olay, and
Dawn Soft Packs. TerraCycle also has recycling programs for Oral Care in the US and China.
The project is based on the Loop platform – a global packaging and shopping circular solution. It
offers consumers the option to have their used product packaging collected from their doorsteps
for recycling or reuse. Participation in the program consists of four stages:

Once collected, the Soft Packs are cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to
make new recycled products.

P&G also makes reusable packaging for its most popular products (i.e. through refilling). Its
scientists and engineers have developed innovative manufacturing, packaging and distribution
solutions that will make sustainable life easy for participating consumers. Strong and reusable
packaging is available for Pantene, Tide, Cascade and Crest with a further 11 brands planned to
be connected in the future:

Pantene introduces a lightweight and durable aluminum bottle for shampoo and conditioner.
Tide Purclean plant-based laundry detergent can be supplied in a sturdy stainless-steel bottle
with twist-off lid and spout.
Cascade has developed a new heavy-duty packaging for the Cascade ActionPac that allows
consumers to skip the pre-wash cycle.
Crest Platinum Mouthwash is packaged in a reusable glass bottle.
Most traditional toothpaste tubes are made of either multilayered plastic (PBL) or plastic and
aluminum (ABL) composites. While the first is technically recyclable, existing recycling facilities
struggle to recycle them. One of the major manufacturers of tubes on the market created a tube
made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) - the same plastic used to make milk bottles. This
should improve the recyclability of tubes in the future.

It is considered impossible to use the usual recyclable type of plastic, "high densitypolyethylene"
(HDPE), as it does not compress enough for toothpaste. However, the right combination of
different types of HDPE allows people to squeeze out all thetoothpaste in comfort, protect
product integrity, and meet high-speed production requirements.

Another eco-friendly brand's toothpaste comes in an all-aluminum tube with a small metal key
so that every last drop can be squeezed out. The inner metal is lined with a food grade
non-BPA6 cover so the paste will never come into contact with the aluminum tube. The outer
carton is FSC7 certified cardboard. The packaging of the toothpaste is manufactured in the
USA, as are 98% of its ingredients, such as calcium carbonate, sodium bicarb, xylitol (birch
derived), carrageenan (seaweed powder), mentha piperita (peppermint oil), hydrated silica and
sodium coccyx glutamate, which is the coconut alternative to SLS.
Raising awareness among dental professionals is an important step towards sustainable
development in oral care. Interest in sustainable dentistry has been slow to take off, but it is
growing. 36.9% of dental students are aware that some non-recyclable materials can be
recycled for other uses. 33.9% of the students surveyed believe that more research is needed in
the field of recycling and reuse in dentistry.

Within dentistry, environmental sustainability can be measured in several ways. One such way
is to analyze the carbon footprint, defined as the total greenhouse gas emissions produced
during the delivery of a specific activity or the manufacturing of a product, expressed in
equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2-e). In order to understand how sustainable a specific
healthcare practice is, researchers analyze their carbon footprint as a proxy measure of
sustainability as analysis of the carbon footprint allows an understanding of which elements of
current practice are not sustainable.

Figure 5: Estimation of the Carbon Emissions NHS Dentistry, United Kingdom

Based on the UK data, within dentistry, the carbon footprint has been calculated to be around
3% of the total NHS footprint, or more precisely 675 kilotons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2
e). Travel for NHS dentistry causes air pollution, and the associated travel impact (for example,
noise pollution, accidents) reduces overall population quality-adjusted life years by 14 minutes.

Question 12: What initiatives to reduce the company's footprint are NOT presented in the text?

Reusing packaging
Reducing the amount of packaging
Reducing the amount of water and electricity
Reducing the amount of carbon dioxide
Question 13: How much carbon dioxide is generated in the UK when people travel to receive
health care (in kilotons)? Please, round to whole number.

183
196
210
221
Question 14: Researchers have proposed the development of special equipment for dentists
that uses half the nitrous oxide of traditional equipment. According to the information above,
what could have a greater positive effect on the environment than the equipment proposed by
scientists, with everything else being equal? You can choose several answers.

New versions of recyclable materials that were previously wasted after use.
A new version of traditional equipment that uses gas as an energy source instead of electricity.
Equipment that uses less clean water for dental operations.
Equipment that allows you to use three times less electricity for dental operations.
Oral Care Products Lifecycle
Lifecycle of a Manual Toothbrush
Materials. Toothbrushes are most often made of plastic, the exception is some biodegradable
brushes made from recycled materials. Plastic is made from oil that is mined and sent to a
refinery. After being sent to a refinery, the extracted gasoline is processed into various types of
plastic and sent to manufacturers.

Production. After receiving plastic pellets, manufacturers melt them and transform them into the
desired product. The plastic is melted and injected into a toothbrush mold. The bristles on a
toothbrush are usually made of nylon, which is made by pulling plastic through a fine lattice
mesh with many small holes that cut the plastic into thin threads. The nylon is then inserted into
the brush head and cut to the desired length using a machine.

Packaging. Toothbrushes are packed in cardboard and/or plastic containers.

Usage. If the hygienic recommendations are followed, a new manual toothbrush will last no
more than 3 months for the consumer, after which it will be thrown away. Most traditional
toothbrushes are non-recyclable, but some companies are starting to produce biodegradable
and recyclable oral care products that can be sent back to the manufacturer for recycling.

Lifecycle of a Toothpaste
Materials. There are multiple ingredients in toothpaste. The original minerals come from the
earth, but the compounds are made with chemicals in a lab. Therefore, processing is done in
the lab.

Production. Each ingredient is manually and mechanically weighed. Temperature and humidity
are big factors in the quality of the toothpaste. Before being filled, toothpaste tubes are cleaned.
After this, caps are put on and the tubes are filled from the bottom.

Packaging. Toothpastes are individually boxed and then put in a bigger box to be sent to the
warehouses. From there, consumers purchase the paste and use it until the tube is empty.

Usage. After it's gone, the tube is usually thrown away, not recycled. Toothpaste tubes can be
recycled, but it is quite a process. The tube must be cut open to clean out any remaining
toothpaste. The cap must also be removed. Each year, 1 billion plastic toothpaste tubes end up
in landfills.

Lifecycle of Dental Floss

Materials. Flosses are usually made of plastic.

Production. Dental floss is commonly made of two polymers, either nylon or Teflon. Nylon is a
fiber forming substance composed of a long chain synthetic polyamide. Teflon is a PTFE, or
polytetrafluoroethylene. Other materials may be added such as wax or flavoring.
Packaging. Most of the time, the dental floss cases are blister packaged, a plastic mold affixed
to a backing, made from cardboard.

Usage. The lifetime can vary depending on regularity of the user. Floss is normally thrown away
into the garbage, where it will later be disposed of in a landfill. Normally, floss is not recycled,
but by not being biodegradable, recycling may become a viable option. Recycling floss requires
cleaning and expanding new strands for future use. Waste such as PTFE is hazardous and
cannot be reused.

Lifecycle of a Powered Toothbrush

Materials. Electric-powered toothbrushes consist of a plastic case, electronic components,
battery (either disposable or rechargeable) and a functional head. Most plastic components are
made of materials that are not commonly recyclable, while the electronic components and
batteries are easily reusable. The head can consist of different plastics and even metal parts
which are difficult to disassemble.

Production. Plastic pellets are melted and transformed into the product parts (handle, brushing
head body, travel case, charging station, etc.). The electronics are assembled separately and
combined with the handle, charging station and travel case. The bristles on a toothbrush head
are usually made of nylon, which is inserted into the brush head and cut to the desired length
using a machine. Batteries are inserted in the toothbrush and then is sealed for waterproof
resistance.

Packaging. Powered toothbrushes are mainly packed as electronic gadgets: either in a blister
pack or in a cardboard box.

Usage. Powered toothbrushes are essentially two types of products. There are disposable
battery-powered toothbrushes and electric rechargeable toothbrushes. Battery-powered
disposables are supposed to be discarded after 3 months of usage, while rechargeable brushes
have a long-lasting 'body' which can work for 3-7 years and replacement heads which are
recommended to be changed every 3 months.

Question 15: Why are many oral care products and their packages not recyclable? You can
choose several answers.

During their recycling, many hazardous substances are formed that are harmful to health.
Packaging and components in many cases consist of several types of different materials that
are difficult to separate for recycling.
There is no need to recycle them as most of the packages are biodegradable.
Because this is a personal hygiene product, the recycling can be very complex due to hygiene
risks.
Question 16: Choose all true statements from the list below, based on the text.

The easiest solution to the problem with recycling is biodegradable products.

Nowadays the main way a user can recycle their toothbrush is to send it back to the
manufacturer for recycling.
Recycling of oral care products is not widely used due to logistical difficulties.
Most oral care packaging uses plastic.
Done
00h 55m 11s
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