Thursday, April 17, 2008

Make a Difference

In honor of Earth Day coming up in a few days (April 22), I'd like to talk about a grassroots campaign called Take Back the Filter. My friend Cat over at The Green Cat, posted about it recently. The purpose of the campaign is to get the US Brita company to start a take-back program for their filters. While the original European Brita GmbH company has created a take-back recycling program for its filter cartridges, Clorox (the US Brita company) has no such program in place for re-using or recycling Brita cartridges. This means million of plastic cartridges get dumped in landfills or incinerated each year.

The campaign is requesting that Clorox:
1. Redesign its Brita filter cartridges so that the plastic housing can be refilled rather than discarded each time the filter is changed.
2. Provide a take-back program, such as the one that exists in Europe, so that used cartridges can be returned to the company for recycling.
3. Create a system for the cartridges to be dismantled and the components recycled/reused domestically rather than landfilled, incinerated, or shipped overseas.

Please take a moment to go check out the official Take Back the Filter web page to learn more about it and find out how you can help (sign the petition, I did). This is truly a grassroots effort that can inspire some major environmental change, but it needs your help.

Make a difference in our world. Thank you.

6 comments:

The Green Cat said...

Hey, thanks for the link. With all the recent press about not using bottled water, I know more folks are relying on their filter pitchers. It would be great if we could get the Clorox company to take back/recycle their filters. The more folks who write in and/or sign the petition, the more power we have to try to get them to change!

Kellybot said...

I signed! A small but significant cause. Thank for the link!

melissa said...

Wow I never knew! Thanks for sharing. I signed the Petition and I'm going to tell others.

Your such a multi-talented Lady!
Rock on Sister!

Melissa

Athena's Armoury said...

Thank you so much for the effort, ladies!! Now spread the word! =D

storybeader said...

very interesting. Thanks for letting me know. {:-Deb

Anonymous said...

Brita recycling success!

Check it out: http://www.takebackthefilter.org/2008/11/brita-and-preserve-announce-filter.html