Dental as anything: How Wellington start-up Solid is remaking toothpaste

Pictured above: Laura Nixon, Founder of Solid.

Everyone’s got an idea for a business at some point in their life. Laura Nixon did something about it. A hygienist troubled by the volume of plastic waste in the dental sector, Laura founded Solid with her husband Adam McConnochie.

Solid replaces the unrecyclable plastic tubes of toothpaste with tablets and powder in glass jars.

“We’ve gone back to the start and asked ‘why does toothpaste need to be in a tube?’ It used to be marketed in tins. Now, worldwide we’re throwing out 1.5 billion tubes every year.”

Laura was first alerted to the scale of waste in her dental practice – the medical business is notorious for its single-use plastics. But it was while on maternity leave that she turned her mind to alternatives.

“You’re thinking a lot more about what world your kids are coming into and not leaving this kind of awful mess. I never really set out to be a massive business. I’ve always loved inventing things or formulating things. I just wanted to make a really good product. And then the rest of it came naturally.”

Launched in 2019, the business began with concoctions made in Laura’s home but demand grew and by 2023 Adam joined, and the couple raised $20,000 on Pledgeme to move into a new ‘factory’ – a shared space inside a Porirua wallpaper manufacturer Aspiring Walls.

Solid is now sold online, and nationwide in health and beauty stores, New World and soon in Australia, with a refill and dispensary offer. Solid was a finalist in the Sustainable Business Awards last year and was included in the very exciting SBN Next 95 list of innovators

So, how does it work? “You chew the tablets and it turns into a paste. And then you just brush as normal. It’s got everything you need in it, just not the water, because you’ve got water in your mouth, right, you’ve got saliva.”

Solid is in good company. Cleanery (cleaners), Ethique (beauty), Aotea Road (deodorants) and Incrediballs (drinks) are all Kiwi companies removing unnecessary water and plastic to deliver a product in solid form.

Laura calculates Solid has already displaced 150,000 tubes of toothpaste. “It’s because our toothpaste is more concentrated, so you need to use a lot less. One of our jars equals two tubes of toothpaste, which is pretty cool.”

Does she think coming from New Zealand gave her an advantage?

“I think New Zealand is leading the way in this area. We’ve been looking at Australia and it [solid toothpaste] doesn’t exist there yet. I think it’s our relationship with our land; we just think a bit more about the impact we’re having.

“So yeah, I think Kiwis are really good at doing this, eh? And also just being a bit DIY and thinking outside of the box for the ways we can do things better.”

What’s been the hardest thing?

Laura has to think because there are a few challenges to choose from.

“Manufacturing. A lot of cosmetic companies will contract manufacture, and we’ve done it in-house to ensure we have tight control over the quality and the freshness. But that is also a separate business. So, three-times the number of things can go wrong on a daily basis. But I still don’t think I would change it.

A key commitment is to lowering the footprint of Solid – it’s no good making a sustainable product, unsustainably. “We’re definitely not perfect. We still use things like pallet wrap. But we reuse all our cleaning cloths. We wash and reuse as much as we can. We compost, we separate all our waste and we reuse boxes.”

Laura believes Solid is in the behaviour change business. “Someone will not immediately go to a jar of toothpaste, but it might be that they start using a keep-cup, and then start composting and choosing ethical coffee. If we can get a lot of people doing small changes we can make a big impact.”

Toothpaste as a gateway drug into sustainable living?

“Let’s hope so, right?”