Remember the AOL CD’s that used to arrive in the mail every week? Turns out they stopped being sent when an organization delivered hundreds of the discs to the company’s headquarters.
Now, a group in California, Take Back the Filter, is gearing up to do the same thing with used Brita filters—which aren't recyclable in the U.S., but are in Europe...
We’ve had our Brita for a few years, and the water tastes fine with regular filter replacements. We were putting a new one in yesterday, and we weren’t sure what to do with the old one—they’re not recyclable— when we stumbled on this petition by Take Back the Filter.
It seems like the filters are recyclable in Europe but not the U.S. because a recycling program isn’t set up stateside. They’re also collecting the filters, (so far, they’re at 264) and they have an address to which you can mail your used ones. Check out more at Take Back the Filter.
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
The same thing should happen with Epson ink cartridges.
view wirth's profile
I stopped using Brita because of all the packaging and waste. I drink tap water now. Though I thought there was an address on the box so I could send it some place for recycling.
view Melissa A.'s profile
In NYC you can bring them to the Brooklyn Freecycle event on Sept. 13. They'll have a box to collect them to send to takebackthefilter.org.
http://www.yelp.com/events/brooklyn-freecycle-nyc-back-to-school-freemeet-9-13
view meganificent's profile
I actually called Brita (with the 1-800 number on the box) as I was replacing my filter two weeks ago. I couldn't understand how the recycling program for these filters wasn't publicized (nor could I fathom that they couldn't be recycled). I spoke to a very nice woman who informed me that they are working on making them recyclable and making the process more efficient. If I would have known about Take Back the Filter two weeks ago, I could have sent one more to them...but I begrudgingly placed it in my small trash bin and planned my attack on Brita's filters. Thanks for letting me know about this and my other options!
view atmnyc's profile