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- Brita takes back its pitcher filters! Now, what about the faucet filters?
- Campaign will hand over 611 collected filters to Brita tomorrow!
- Please ask your local Whole Foods to participate in Brita filter collection!
- 11/18/08: Brita® and Preserve® Announce Filter Recycling Program
- More Recent Articles
- Search Take Back The Filter
Friday, January 30, Beth Terry delivered 561 Brita pitcher filters plus 50 Brita faucet/refrigerator filters to Brita representatives at Whole Foods Market in Oakland, CA for recycling.
The 561 pitcher filters will be included as part of Preserve's Gimme5 program, which will also collect other types of #5 plastic (such as yogurt tubs, prescription bottles, and all Preserve products).
The 50 non-pitcher filters were handed separately to Brita's Drew McGowan, who has promised to include them in ongoing recycling research since faucet filters are made from a different kind of plastic from pitcher filters.
In attendance at Friday's event, along with Terry and McGowan, were Martina Wang from Brita as well as Adesina Stewart and Liz Bootz from Whole Foods Market.
Next steps...
1) Check the list of participating Whole Foods Markets to determine if your local store will be participating. If not, please contact the manager of your store and ask him/her to participate in Preserve's Gimme5 program.
2) Write or call Clorox (Brita). Thank them for finding a way to recycle pitcher filters, and let them know we want them to go even further. First, we want to encourage Brita to find a way to recycle faucet filters. And second, we'd like all its filters to be designed to be either refilled or the plastic recycled into new filters.
It's great that Preserve has stepped in to help recycle these filters into new products like toothbrushes and cutting boards. Still, virgin plastic must be used to create new filters. If Brita can come up with a way to create new filters from old ones, the recycling loop will truly be closed. We hope Brita will continue their research into further methods of recycling.
01/29/2008: Thanks to you, we've collected a total of 611 filters that we'll happily hand over to Brita tomorrow morning to be recycled as part of Preserve's Gimme5 program. The handover will take place at 8:00AM PST at Whole Foods Market in Oakland, CA (the new Lake Merritt location.) Local press have been invited to come and witness the event.
Wonder what 611 Brita filters look like? Here's a photo taken back when we had only 581!
Brita has kindly arranged this event for us and are enthusiastic about accepting the filters to kick off the recycling program. Are you interested in witnessing the filter transfer and perhaps taking a few photos? Here is the text of Brita's media alert:
*ATTN: EVENT MEDIA ALERT*
RECYCLING TOWARD A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE:
Brita collects more than 600 filters at Oakland’s Whole Foods Market
WHAT: Earlier this year, Brita teamed up with Preserve, a leading maker of 100 percent recycled household consumer goods, to collect and recycle Brita pitcher filters for the first time ever. Consumers have been asked to drop off used Brita filters at participating Whole Foods Markets, which collect and ship the filters on behalf of Preserve. This program allows Brita consumers to make another positive impact by recycling Brita pitcher filters and thus reducing dependence on bottled water.
Friday, January 30, 2009, Beth Terry, local Bay Area recycling advocate who supports the reduction of plastic waste and plastic recycling, will hand over more than 600 filters collected prior to the program’s launch to Brita and Whole Foods as part of the Preserve Gimme 5 program to collect No. 5 polypropylene plastics. These filters will be among the first of their kind to be recycled into Preserve household products such as toothbrushes, cups and cutting boards.
WHERE: Photo opportunity to take place at local Whole Foods Market in Oakland, Calif. 230 Bay Place Oakland, Calif. 94612
WHEN: Friday, January 30, 2009 at 8 a.m. PT
WHO: Brita Senior Group Manager, Drew McGowan, who manages the FilterForGood campaign and Martina Wang, who facilitated the recycling program will receive the filters on behalf of Brita. Joining Drew and Martina are Whole Foods representatives, Adesina Stewart and Liz Bootz and Beth Terry, local Bay Area recycling advocate.
Visit brita.com for more details on the recycling program.
For my part, I'll just be happy to move these boxes of filters out from under my dining room table!
12/09/08: As we announced in our 11/18/08 update, Whole Foods Markets will be collecting used Brita filters for recycling as part of Preserve's Gimme 5 program beginning in January. However, we have recently learned that each individual Whole Foods Market manager can decide whether or not to participate in the program.
If you would like to be able to return your used Brita filters, as well as all other #5 plastics, to your local Whole Foods, please contact the store near you and let the manager know.
Contact info for all stores in the U.S. and Canada can be found here:
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/all/index.php
This program will work best if customers are able to return their filters while shopping rather than having to mail them in.
As promised, here are the details of the take-back recycling program that Brita has developed. Read their full press release here.
1) Collection: Beginning in early January, Brita users will be able to drop off used filters at Whole Foods Markets or mail them to an address which will be provided closer to the start date. [From personal experience, I would recommend NOT sealing them up in ZipLoc bags. This just ends up creating a lot of soggy, wet, not-so-nice smelling filters.]
2) Recycline, dba Preserve, the company that makes recycled toothbrushes, razors, and other household products, will recycle 100% of each plastic filter casing collected into other household products.
3) The filter ingredients, activated carbon and ion-exchange resin will be regenerated for alternative use or converted into energy.
The Take Back The Filter campaign is very pleased with this solution. Of course, we would always prefer to to see the filters redesigned to be reused/refilled. But we understand that that might not be practical. And partnering with Preserve is a great alternative.
When Brita first contacted us back in April, they told us they were leaning on Waste Management to figure out how to recycle the filters. Waste Management is in the collection business. They collect plastic for recycling and sell it off, normally shipping it away to cities in Asia. We wanted the Brita filters to stay here at home where we need green jobs to bolster our economy.
According to Preserve's Earth Efforts page:
Recycline makes nearly all of our products in the United States, working with U.S. manufacturers. This practice benefits our local economy and also reduces the CO2 emissions that would be generated by transportation of products to the United States from other countries. Sometimes we need to extend just beyond the border to guarantee quality and environmentally responsible manufacturing, so the blades for our Preserve razors are produced in Mexico.
Thank you to everyone who got involved in this campaign, sent us your used filters, signed the petition, sent letters to Clorox, forwarded emails, wrote blog posts, and helped in ways we may never know. Brita might have started recycling their filters eventually without our help, but letting them know how important this issue was to so many people certainly ensured that it remained on their radar and that they sought the most responsible method possible.
A huge thanks also to the
Sierra Club! Sierra Club, as you may or may not know, already had a relationship with Clorox in helping them to develop their Green Works line of natural cleaning products. So it was natural for our campaign to partner with them to help Brita find the best way to recycle the filters.
What's next?
This site will remain up. If you haven't signed up for updates, please do so. We will let you know further details about Brita recycling. And in the coming days, we will add info on how we can encourage other water filter companies (like Pur) to follow suit.
In January, we will deliver our over 500 collected filters to Brita publicly so that all of you who sent them in can see your filters handled responsibly! And for those who still have filters to send, please hold onto them until January. We will be shutting down our mailbox in a few days.
In the mean time, please send a thank you letter to Brita for the hard work they have done putting this program in place. Clorox is showing itself to be an environmental leader, which might seem unusual for such a large corporation. We'd like them to feel that going green is truly worth it, and to perhaps look at their other product lines and figure out ways to make them more sustainable as well. (I have a few ideas!)
Here's the info for writing to Clorox:
Mailing Addresses:
Mr. Don Knauss, Chairman & CEO
Mr. Drew McGowan
The Clorox Company
1221 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94612
Web Form:
http://www.brita.com/contact_form_us.php
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