The Turtle Tribe: Teen entrepreneur's mission to rid world oceans of plastic toothbrushes

Aug 28, 2023

When Today's Karl Stefanovic first met Ned Heaton, he was an nine-year-old with big ambitions.

The youngster appeared on Nine's This Time Next Year back in 2016, hoping to have an artwork accepted into the Young Archibalds - which he did.

Just two years after that, the young entrepreneur started working on his next big project - ridding the world's oceans of plastic pollution one piece at a time.

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Ned is now just 15-years-old and his business, The Turtle Tribe, is turning over six figures and even earned him an Australian Teen Entrepreneur of the Year award.

There are around three billion plastic toothbrushes thrown away every year and they take centuries to break down.

So Ned is pushing for people to swap out using plastic brushes on their teeth and use bamboo ones instead.

"It's all about helping people reduce their plastic waste and switching over to bamboo toothbrushes is a super easy change everyone can do," he said.

"Toothbrushes last over 500 years in the environment, so that means every one you've ever used is still in the world somewhere."

The Turtle Tribe has grown into such a successful venture, Ned has an extensive team of dedicated staff who include even his mum and dad.

"He's trying to disrupt a $10 billion plastic toothbrush industry, so there's a lot to do," Ned's dad Shane told Today.

"It's really inspiring, Ned is really driven and is doing a great job and spreading the message of helping to reduce plastics and my wife and I are proud to work with him on this."

To encourage people to be conscious of the plastics they use in their everyday lives, The Turtle Tribe is giving away one million bamboo toothbrushes to people willing to stop using the non-biodegradable ones.

See what else Ned had to say in the video above

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