How 15-years-old Ned Heaton and The Turtle Tribe are saving the ocean — one bamboo toothbrush at a time

Brisbane-based teenager Ned Heaton attended a business course for kids four years ago. At the time, he was 11 years old. The course challenged students to invest $20 and generate as much profit as possible within 30 days. Working door-to-door, Ned sold bamboo toothbrushes and turned his $20 into almost $1,200.

In 2023, Ned’s business is still going strong. His environmentally-focused brand, The Turtle Tribe, has achieved an average of around 100% annual growth and has national supply contracts. In 2022, both of Ned’s parents even sold their family business to begin working for the company.

In a recent interview with SmartCompany Plus, Ned and his dad Shane Heaton (Turtle Tribe’s general manager), chatted about the benefits of running a values-aligned business and dreaming big – even when you’re not quite ready.

Local beginnings

Like all good ideas, Ned’s concept for The Turtle Tribe evolved from a problem he was witnessing firsthand: ocean plastic pollution.

Ned’s parents are both passionate environmentalists and businesspeople – the couple previously ran an organic grocery delivery service – and when the Heaton family spent holidays camping on Moreton Island, they used “a day or two” of each trip to collect plastic from the island’s beaches.

One of the items frequently discovered was plastic toothbrushes.

Source: Supplied

“By 2050, scientists predict there’ll be more plastic in the ocean than fish,” Ned explains.

“Around three billion plastic toothbrushes are thrown away globally every year, and the plastic from each brush will last about 500 years. But there’s no reason toothbrushes have to be made from plastic. Bamboo does the same job and is biodegradable when you finish with it.”

When Ned attended a Youth in Business course in 2019, students were challenged to create a business by investing $20. Ned was inspired by his family’s environmental passion.

“I knew I didn’t want to sell plastic junk and gadgets people didn’t actually need,” Ned says.

“So, I started with a few different products that were good for the environment. But, during those 30 days, I really began to focus on bamboo toothbrushes. Toothbrushes are a readily available product, they’re not expensive to buy, and everyone uses one. Plus, you’re supposed to throw them away every three months so people always need to buy new ones.”

The Turtle Tribe bamboo toothbrushes. Source: Supplied

Working door to door in his local neighbourhood, Ned turned his $20 investment into $1,160 within 30 days, and when the course finished, Ned continued his business venture. His dad built him a basic website and Ned focused his stock offering almost entirely on bamboo toothbrushes. But things got serious when he entered a global changemaker competition – the Be The Change Awards.

The award that grew his business

With the help of his older sister (who was 14 at the time), Ned made a video application for the awards before realising the minimum age criteria for applicants was 16.

“We saw in the rules there was a rule saying judges could change the rules,” Ned explains.

“So, we submitted a second video asking them to change the rules because the oceans couldn’t wait another five years, and neither could I.”

The application succeeded, and Ned won, highlighting his name and brand, and providing “valuable opportunities” including networking and PR.

In the following year, Ned secured his first national supply contract with Australia’s largest aged care provider. These days, The Turtle Tribe has contracts with about 10 different aged care providers and “more coming”.

“The intergenerational partnership with the aged care sector has been fantastic,” Ned says. “They’re very supportive.”

The Turtle Tribe also supplies a national health food wholesaler that directs products into health food stores and pharmacies and has smaller partnerships with some dentists and resorts.

These contracts prompted Ned’s parents to sell their own business in 2022 and join The Turtle Tribe.

“The Turtle Tribe was experiencing an average of about 100% growth annually, and we’re heading to around $200,000 turnover this calendar year,” Shane explains.

“The business has a lot of potential, but Ned is finishing year 10 this year and still has to complete his senior years of school. It was getting bigger than he could manage on his own while doing schoolwork. So, we thought it was the right time to come aboard and help him hold the fort for a few years.”

Freebies and children’s books: The Turtle Tribe’s unconventional business model

Early in founding The Turtle Tribe, Ned pledged to give away 1 million free bamboo toothbrushes in the hope it would encourage more people to switch from plastic brushes. So far, he’s given away several thousand but is a long way from hitting his six-figure target.

“There was a lot of criticism about this part of Ned’s business plan,” says Shane.

“People commented that he was just a little kid giving away his pocket money and said things like, ‘You can’t keep doing that forever,’ and ‘business doesn’t work that way’. But the reality is, for every free toothbrush he gives away, he gets about $20 of sales. It has been a good marketing strategy and helps drive the mission of helping people make the switch.”

Ned and Shane also decided to write a children’s book about saying no to plastic. The book is used nationwide in schools to run plastic pollution educational campaigns.

Source: Supplied

“The school education programs are a really important part of building the tribe in Turtle Tribe,” Ned says. “It’s how we can guarantee that we create a new generation of changemakers.”

The book and education programs also support The Turtle Tribe’s new venture: school fundraising campaigns.

In place of school children selling plastic-wrapped chocolates or similar, schools can now purchase The Turtle Tribe products to sell within their community as a fundraising initiative.

Ned has also committed to using a portion of his profits to assist not-for-profits working to protect our oceans.

“We give 10% of our profits to Ocean Crusaders, a local charity that removes plastic from beaches and waterways,” Ned says, “And we’ve given some money to Sea Shepherd.”

The future of The Turtle Tribe

Ned’s long-term goal is to get The Turtle Tribe into Australian supermarkets and “disrupt the plastic toothbrush market”. He’s also lobbying to have disposable plastic toothbrushes banned in Australia.

Ned Heaton with a minister. Source: Supplied

“There are people working on cleaning up ocean plastics,” Ned says.

“But one of my mentors explained to me that we could keep cleaning up the beaches year after year, and plastic would keep washing up on them for our whole lives. We need to turn off the tap on plastic production, and cutting down on disposable plastics is a really great place to start doing that. I hope that by prompting people to swap over their toothbrushes for bamboo, they’ll make more changes in their lives.

“If the government was to ban plastic toothbrushes, there would need to be a readily available and used alternative,” he continues. “So that’s where bamboo toothbrushes come in.

“One day, I’d like The Turtle Tribe to be the biggest bamboo toothbrush brand in the world.”

Ned’s tips for other entrepreneurs

“Start before you’re ready, or you might never begin. I learnt an expression from my business course: ‘Sometimes you have to build the plane while you’re flying’. And that’s been true for The Turtle Tribe.”
“Choose a business concept that you’re passionate about. If you really enjoy what you’re doing and can see the value in it and the end goal, you’re more likely to stick with it when things get tough.”
“Enter competitions and awards. Entering awards is a great way to help you refine your message and get clear about your goals.”