The swab ends are TPE, the rod is plastic, and the case is PLA which is made of corn and is biodegradable. When creating a product to last for thousands of uses, durability is key. LastSwab replaces thousands of single-use cotton swabs. Even if LastSwab does end up in the ocean, it’s damage is less than 0.1% of its single-use counterparts, simply because there will be much less of them.