[emuffette]

First of all just to add a general comment to this thread, miswak is the troooth. Since I started using it daily since last Ramadan or so, there has been a very visible difference in the whiteness and health of my teeth, Alhamdulillah. The main purpose however is to practice the Sunnah of the Prophet and get 70+ times reward for each salah, the physical benefit is just a bonus!

Question: When we cut off the old bristles of the miswak to use fresh ones, what do we do with them? Is it disrespectful to just throw the used bristles in the garbage?

I asked our Imam at the local mosque a while ago what is the correct way to dispose of a used miswak, he said it is preferable if it is buried in the ground. I did not however ask about bristles and personally I throw them in the trash, but I am sure there is a better way to do it. Insha'Allah there is no harm in throwing them in trash so I try not to add extra steps to certain things because it may result in my stop using it altogether.

After using it should you rinse the whole miswak and replace is back in the wrapper, or should yo just leave it out in the open? I've hear that keeping a miswak damp causes it to rot. I think thats what happened to my last one, the wood got hard to chew off.

I've seen brothers in the Masjid do this (replace it back in wrapper). However, when I did that, it started growing mold. Also on more than one occasion, if I wasn't careful to keep it in an upright position where it could easily dry, it started growing mold also. So my recommendation would be to just keep it upright (like in a cup or one of those pen holder type things) and leave it out in the open so it doesn't grow mold. I've seen some miswak vendors selling open miswaks (not in wrapper) so I had once asked one at the Masjid about it and he said that miswaks need air to stay fresh so every so often he opens the older ones and sells them like that and keeps the newer inventory in the wrappers. Don't know how accurate that is but that's what he said.