When you’ve squeezed a toothpaste tube for the final time, what do you do with it? It’s made of plastic, so perhaps you throw it in the recycling. But unlike other plastic packaging, toothpaste tubes have traditionally been tricky to recycle as they’re made of layers of different plastic materials to make them easier to squeeze.

Several major manufacturers now sell tubes that can (theoretically) be put in your recycling. Colgate says that all its tubes will be recyclable by 2025; Oral-B says 70% of its tubes have already been converted to a widely recyclable material. But recycling rules differ by local area. Find out your local rules at recyclenow.com. And some retailers, such as Boots, have set up drop-off schemes for tricky-to-recycle products.