SIGN-UP FOR DAILY TIPS

BANG FOR THE BITE

They're already doing it in Europe - why not here? Sending manufacturers the message takes just a few minutes, and if enough of us do it, they're bound to listen up.

COCKTAIL FACT

Myth-buster: Water does not go down drains and toilets in different directions in the northern and southern hemispheres.

SAVE TO MY BITES

FORWARD TO A FRIEND:

RATE THIS TIP:

How useful is this tip to you?
(5 is the highest)

home › tip library › Water Filter Recycling Campaigns

Want your water filter cartridge to go back where it came from?

The Bite

No can do. Since using a water filter (instead of plastic water bottles) is eco-forward-thinking, it probably sounds a little, um, backward, but you can't currently recycle your H2O filter cartridges (think Brita or Pur). Ask the manufacturers to pretty please change direction, and take back their filters for recycling.

Nov. 18, 2008: SUCCESS. Thanks in no small part to the flood of letters generated by you Biters when this tip originally ran, today Brita announced a recycling program set to begin Jan. 2009. Next step: Getting Pur to take back their filters too - see a sample letter in this blog.

The Benefits

A waste about-face. If every American started using filters instead of disposable bottles, we'd save a lotta plastic - but we'd still send 167 million filter cartridges to landfills each year.
Moving proper chem disposal forward. Toxins, such as chlorine and lead, collect in your cartridge as you use it to filter the water. A proper disposal system will prevent these from leaching into the earth.
Letting off some steam. Sound off for a good cause.

Personally Speaking

A bunch of us have Pur brand filters - and since there's no campaign for them yet, we decided to start our own. Check out our letter to the manufacturer in the blog.

Wanna Try?

Take Back the Filter - campaign to urge Brita to take back its plastic filter cartridges. Sign the petition here.
Instructables - extreme DIYers: find out how to refill your old Brita cartridges yourself.
Brita UK - Europe's already there: UK Biters can enter their postcode to find a drop spot for recycling.

Aug 25,2008

Sponsor

All editorial suggestions in this tip are the result of testing and a preference for the tip topic. No advertiser has paid to have its company referenced in the tip. For more information, please read our Editorial Policy.

SIGN-UP FOR DAILY TIPS

SEARCH

RSS FEED LINKS

Add to My AOL

Add to My Yahoo!

blog RSS feed

RECOMMENDED SITES

Biter Picks:

Founder Faves:

heather

jen

Staff Faves:

toshio

NPR's This American Life

sara

anna

Biter Tee Models

My Brita, Extra Brrr

I like my water cold. I also like it filtered. Cold + filtered = I put my Brita in the fridge. Okay? Okay.

Enter Brittany, my sweet-as-sugar vanilla cupcake college roommate. Brittany likes her water tepid - better for digestion, Chinese medicine, blah, blah, blah. Passive aggressive comes to mind when I reflect on Brittany and the water war we had throughout our sophomore year. I would walk into the kitchen to pour myself a frosty glass of deliciously filtered Hetch Hetchy, and my dreams of refreshment would die as soon as I would see that Brita on the counter, taunting me. I would put the Brita in the fridge, Brittany would pull it out, and so on, without our speaking a word concerning the matter - ever.

They say that comedy = tragedy + time (they is brilliant), and now Brittany and I laugh about our lil' war, but that's probably because Brittany now lives in Santa Rosa with her warm water, and I live in SF with the sweet, icy cold stuff.

-Assistant Editor Hanah...off to call Brittany to tell her I love her, especially now...

Sample letter for Pur filter users:

Dear ___________:

I'm a devoted Pur user. But each time I throw a cartridge in the garbage to replace it with a new one, I'm sad that this plastic will end up in a landfill, where it will last forever in our environment. I use the Pur system in order to avoid the waste of plastic water bottles. I urge you to redesign the filter cartridges so that they can be refilled and/or create a system for us to recycle these plastic filter cartridges instead of sending them to the landfill.

As you may know, the Brita company in Europe has developed a comprehensive take-back recycling program for all of its filter cartridges. This program is not dependent on city recycling systems. The Brita Company itself collects, dismantles, and recycles the filter cartridges. I know that Proctor & Gamble has been making efforts lately to become much more environmentally-friendly (including your new Green Guarantee program), and this would be a great way to forward those efforts.

I look forward to hearing your views on this issue.

Sincerely,
[Your John Hancock]

Send it to:
Procter & Gamble Customer Relations
1 Procter & Gamble Plaza
Cincinnati, OH 45202

Or, fill out Pur's contact form online:
http://www.purwater.com/contact-us.html

Biter Comments...

Thanks so much for including a link to the Take Back The Filter campaign to urge Brita to recycle filters in your Daily Bite. And I am so glad that you have started your own campaign to urge Pur to do the same thing. Now, when people email us about Pur, we will point them in your direction. Do you have any other plans besides letter-writing? Beth Terry http://www.takebackthefilter.org

Posted by: Beth Terry | August 25, 2008 at 06:37 AM

Thanks for making it easy for us to contact these companies by writing a sample letter to Pur and posting the link to the Brita petition. I did both.

Posted by: Anne | August 25, 2008 at 07:03 AM

I've been taking back my used brita filters for recycling for at least 2 years now - they do recycle them over here in the UK, surely they ought to do so everywhere they sell their filters?

Posted by: Jacquie | August 25, 2008 at 11:22 AM

Hi Jacquie. The difference is that in North America, Brita is owned by the Clorox Corporation, while in Europe Brita is still owned by the original German company. Two different companies with different philosophies. And also, in Europe, you have laws about such things that we don't have over here.

Posted by: Beth Terry | August 25, 2008 at 01:30 PM

Coming from someone who is not very good at putting thought into words, not very good at putting word onto paper,(and even if I was, I wouldn't have the time), I thank you very much for this blog post. It's one of the best I've ever read on this site. I'd also like to see more of these in the future.

Posted by: Sandy | August 25, 2008 at 02:54 PM

How about all refrigerator water filters?

Posted by: Mary Herbsman | August 25, 2008 at 03:42 PM

Mary, someone needs to organize the campaign to get refrigerator filters recycled. Want to take it on? First step would be to write the company and see what they say. Every campaign starts with one person who wants to make a change!

Posted by: Beth Terry | August 25, 2008 at 03:51 PM

first of all, a second regular pitcher could have solved the problem, Hanah. filter, pour, refrigerate. solved. second of all, why is filtered water so important? the US has amazingly clean water. what's wrong with tap water? if there is something wrong with the tap, demand it get fixed. test your water. i bet it's fine. i've never been able to put my head around this need for filtered and bottled water. now that i live somewhere where the water is full of not just bacteria but heavy metals, i understand Americans' obsession with filtering their already clean water even less. as far as writing to Proctor & Gamble to think about the environmental impact of its products, well, good luck. I think it would be far wiser to petition and then not buy their products. i'm sure there are instructions online for creating your own charcoal filter, aren't there? or, is that too green? right, this is a light green operation. i keep forgetting.

Posted by: tammy | August 25, 2008 at 08:30 PM

Would it be better or worse for us in the USA to ship our used filters to someone in Europe ? Just wondering .....

Posted by: Bryant | August 26, 2008 at 04:38 AM

Bryant, do you use Brita? Please send your used filters to us here in the U.S. The address is on the web site: http://www.takebackthefilter.org/2008/04/send-us-your-used-filters.html Sending to Europe will use a lot of fuel and will do nothing to convince Clorox to create a recycling program for us here in the U.S. Beth

Posted by: Beth Terry | August 26, 2008 at 05:16 AM

Thanks for the help in this. I just sent off a letter to Pur and a copy of it to them via their online Email Us area. Will now start sending them back their used filters at the same Customer Service address -- whether they like it or not ! I own and use both their faucet filter and their filter pitcher, so there will be a steady "flow" of used filters to them from me. Maybe if we all just send our used filters to them, they'll begin to get the idea. Really appreciate your newsletter. Keep up the good work.

Posted by: Miki Davis | August 26, 2008 at 09:27 AM

How about just drinking tap water? It was good enough for us 20 years ago why not now? I've lived in less desrireable parts of LA with cloudy water, oh well, the cloudiness goes away. Or you could wash out your milk gallons and fill them with spring water or filtered water from the dispensing machines in front of most grocery stores.

Posted by: Mike | August 26, 2008 at 10:28 AM

I found your blog through an unsuccessful search to find some way to recycle my used PUR filters. I just send the following email to PUR: I live in Seattle, WA, US where where there is ever growing concern about reducing waste. In that spirit I looked on the Web today for a way to recycle my used PUR water filter. I'm dismayed to learn that there seems to be no way. Since this company touts the environmental benefits of using PUR filtering instead of bottled water, it seems you would be well served to consider the waste of your filters. Please start a return system. Perhaps something printer cartridge vendors have, with a postage paid envelope in which consumers can return filters. Surely you can save the cost of the postage by recyclying returned filters.

Posted by: Nancy | August 30, 2008 at 11:24 AM