Writer Adele Peters answers this question for FastCompany in the article here. We’ve pasted the beginning of the story for your convenience, but you can read the rest of the article on their site!

When you’re brushing your teeth and you’ve squeezed out the last bit of toothpaste, you probably toss the empty tube in the trash.

Few people realize that most toothpaste tubes are now recyclable—at least in theory.

A team at Colgate spent five years redesigning its packaging so that it could easily be recycled, and rolled it out across the brand’s products in 2022. They also open-sourced the project so other companies could deploy the same approach. Now at least 95% of all toothpaste tubes sold in the U.S. use the design. “We’re proud of the role we’ve played in transforming plastic tubes into a recyclable format,” says Ann Tracy, chief sustainability officer at Colgate-Palmolive.

But recycling companies are still catching up to the news, and most cities still haven’t told residents that it’s okay to put the tubes in a recycling bin. Furthermore, a lawsuit currently underway argues that the tubes shouldn’t be labeled as “recyclable” since so many cities don’t officially accept them yet.