Katoomba Dental Practice Horley

25/09/2025

This is great news indeed!

Toothpaste tubes now recyclable across the UK;

All toothpaste tubes sold nationwide will now be made of recyclable polyethylene as part of a sustainability drive led by toothpaste manufacturers.

Toothpaste tubes have previously presented a challenge for recycling as they were formed of a sheet of aluminium sandwiched between plastic. Led by toothpaste brands such as Colgate and Haleon in collaboration with the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), the tubes will now be 100% recyclable.

While many local authorities are beginning to accept toothpaste tubes for recycling via kerbside collection, many consumers will still not have access to tube recycling from home. However, toothpaste tubes can be taken to Boots locations across the country, where customers will receive Advantage Card points for participating in the Recycle at Boots scheme.

‘Monumental change’
This announcement coincides with the UK’s annual Recycle Week, taking place from 22 to 28 September 2025.

Research conducted by WRAP found that most people believe toothpaste tubes are non recyclable. In the survey, eight in 10 people said they put one or more item that could be recycled in the residual bin.

Catherine David, WRAP CEO, said ‘We’ve taken one of the most infuriating household items and made it recyclable. To mark this monumental change, we’re asking oral healthcare professionals to tell patients about this. Dentists are the frontline of behaviour change in promoting oral healthcare practices, so we hope they’ll have a minute to encourage patients to recycle the tubes too. It’ll help reduce the amount of landfillings caused by discarded toothpaste tubes!’

How has the dental industry responded to recyclable toothpaste tubes?
Many major brands in the dental industry have welcomed the change.

Adrian Sen, sustainability innovation senior manager at Colgate-Palmolive, said: ‘We aim to contribute to a healthier planet through sustainable practices and are dedicated to converting all of our toothpaste tubes to the recyclable plastic tube design.

‘We are excited to have partnered with WRAP and others in the industry to make this a reality. The dental profession is a vital partner for us in encouraging healthy oral care habits as well as behaviours that promote a healthier future for all people, their pets and our planet.’

Joe Muscat, environmental sustainability and innovation director at Haleon, said: ‘Making toothpaste tubes recyclable is a major step forward in reducing plastic waste. At Haleon, we’re proud to have played a leading role in this industry-wide shift, helping to turn a daily routine into a more sustainable one. By working together with partners like WRAP, we’re making it easier for people to make better choices for their health – and the planet.’

17/07/2025

12/07/2025

BrightBites reached 18,761 children in June! 🎉

Our oral health education programme with Dentaid The Dental Charity continues to go from strength to strength, with volunteers delivering sessions in schools and other educational settings across the country.

June’s total takes us one step closer to our target of delivering vital oral health education to half a million children by 2028.

But we need more volunteers to make that happen! You don’t need any dental experience or training to volunteer, and all materials are provided. If you’re interested in finding out more, or signing up, visit our website: https://www.denplan.co.uk/patients/brightbites

16/04/2025

Dr Jamil, Dr Kirtikar & Dr Liu

15/04/2025

A great meeting with our clinical team who gave up an evening to discuss best practice and the latest guidelines in periodontal treatment and hygiene protocols (we did tempt them with a tasty Thai supper, which helped). A great chance for our dentists, therapists and hygienists to get together to ensure we are delivering the best care for our patients. Also many thanks to Phill, our Oral B Territory Manager & Clinical Expert for giving up his time to talk to us about the effectiveness of using an Oral B iO electric toothbrush compared to a manual brush and literally teaching us how to brush our teeth! We can't wait to share this with you...remember it is what you do at home between appointments that count!

01/07/2024

Today at our Practice Meeting the team have been talking about caring for our patients who are living with Dementia and the impact this condition has on oral health. We wanted to share this useful information by Dementia UK. If you or someone you care for need any extra help or adjustments when attending the practice, please let us know and we will do what we can to help.

Dementia UK is a charity that provides Admiral Nurses for families affected by dementia. Call our Dementia Helpline to find out how we can support you.

31/07/2023

Celebrating 25 years at Katoomba, our lovely Linda! What an amazing achievement. We are so grateful for all her loyalty, hard work and outstanding care of our patients over the last quarter of a century!

09/09/2022

Today we stand with our patients and our community to mourn the loss of our Queen. Her devotion to service and gracious leadership was inspirational to all.

As a team who have worked together for many years, we have shared many a historical event, but none such as significant as this.

Our thoughts are with her family and those who served her, enabling her to serve us.

09/06/2022

Smile!... After two years, we are delighted to announce that patients and staff no longer have to wear face coverings in our non-clinical areas. We would like to thank you all for bearing with us and following guidelines - communication has been a challenge with all with the barriers in the way! However, we still ask that patient's do not attend if unwell, to help protect those more vulnerable. Of course this is also down to local risk assessment and we may have to reintroduce measures should the local picture change, but for now, let's enjoy the moment!

02/02/2022

What a lovely sunset for 2.2.22! Hope everyone is well and looking forward to the year ahead. Just a reminder that while things are beginning to feel a bit more like 'the good old days', we are still asking everyone to wear face coverings and not to attend with any cold/flu or Covid symptoms in line with the NHS seasonal winter plan.

18/07/2021

I hope that you are all enjoying the current glorious weather. Many of you have asked what will happen at the Practice after "freedom day" on July 19. Well, after lots of discussions and listening to your comments and concerns we have decided to keep all our current procedures in place regarding patient admittance and cleaning protocols. Therefore we respectfully request that you continue to wear a face covering when you visit our Practice. Our duty of care is to all our patients and Team and we can not afford to become complacent whilst the Covid 19 positivity rates are so high. Please closely monitor any future practice communications for further updates.
We thank you all for your continued cooperation and support.