Gimme5, Brita, Preserve, and You!

Can you believe that the day this photo was taken I was so sick I could barely stand up?

I wrote all about the culmination of the Take Back The Filter campaign in a post on the Take Back The Filter web site, but I forgot to write about it here... until today. Michael woke me up from a sound sleep this morning with the news that I and the campaign had made the front page of a very important newspaper. Better than the NY Times, I made our local East Bay Express.

Seriously, the article "The Blogger and the Bleach Company" is very well-written and balanced, describing the reasons behind the campaign as well as its results. And reading it, I realize how important it is now that the recycling program has been created that we support it and make sure Brita users know it exists. If no one actually returns their filters for recycling, the program could fail and be discontinued.

Here's the deal: Preserve has created a recycling program called Gimme5, collecting not only Brita pitcher filters but all #5 plastic containers (like yogurt containers and prescription bottles) as well as all Preserve products. Preserve is a U.S. company that manufactures toothbrushes, razors, and housewares from #5 (polypropylene) recycled plastic. The recycling happens here in the U.S., creating much-needed jobs domestically rather than exporting the plastic overseas, as is the case with most of our plastic recycling.

There are two ways to return #5 plastics to Preserve. Drop items into Gimme5 bins at select Whole Foods Markets or ship them back via U.S. mail to:

Preserve Gimme 5
823 NYS Rte 13
Cortland, NY 13045

The Gimme5 web site has complete instructions for how items should be packaged. And here is the official Brita recycling web page.

I've been collecting my used Preserve toothbrushes to mail back en masse, saving postage and fuel. I'm happy that I can instead drop them off in the Gimme5 bin at Whole Foods (using my feet or bike pedals for transit.)

So what about recycling #5 plastic? Haven't I been arguing that we should find alternatives to plastic rather than relying on recycling as the answer? I sure have. And I still feel that way. But I also feel that this program provides a way to deal responsibly with certain plastics that might be unavoidable for many people.

I personally don't use any water filter these days. We had our water tested and found it to be perfectly fine as is. But unfortunately there are people whose tap water is not great or who have lead pipes or who just don't like the taste and would otherwise purchase bottled water. For these people, filters like Brita are a fact of life, and having a way to recycle them is important.

While I may not use Brita filters anymore, I do end up with the ocassional prescription bottle. In California, they cannot be refilled by the pharmacy. Knowing that they will be recycled responsibly by Preserve, a company that happens to be a member of Co-op America's Green Business Network, rather than shipped to China is reassuring.

The Gimme5 program is not a free pass to go crazy buying disposable #5 plastics. But it is an important player in the field of Extended Producer Responsibility, the philosophy that companies that release their products into the world should provide for the full life-cycle of those products, providing cradle to cradle systems for extending the useful life of the materials, reducing waste, and conserving energy and resources.

Here in Oakland, we've just been informed that we can now drop wide-mouthed containers into our curbside recycling bins. Previously, we could only recycle narrow-necked bottles. So we have a choice. We can recycle #5 containers at the curb or take them to Whole Foods. Which method is better?

Right now, I'm thinking Gimme5 beats the curb because we know where the materials are going and who is responsible for them. The plastic left in our curbside bins will most likely be shipped to various companies in Asia. We don't know what products will be created from the materials, what safeguards will be used in the process, what toxins will be released, or even if the plastic will be recycled at all.

Finally, AND MOST IMPORTANT, if we want the Gimme5 program to succeed, it's up to us to promote it. Let your friends and family know. If you have a blog, let your readers know. And the idea that came to me this morning as I read about the campaign in my local paper: write a letter to the editor!

How about this for a sample?

Editor:

Plastic waste is a serious environmental problem. It is made from fossil fuels and does not biodegrade, lasting virtually forever and wreaking havoc in the natural world.

Fortunately, a new program called Gimme5 is attempting to deal responsibly with some of our plastic waste. Customers can return used #5 (polypropylene) plastic containers as well as Brita pitcher water filters and used Preserve products to select Whole Foods markets or mail them back to Preserve for recycling. Full details of the program are at http://www.preserveproducts.com/gimme5/.

I am not personally associated with Preserve, Whole Foods, or Brita, but as an individual attempting to live responsibly on the planet, I highly recommend this program.

Sincerely,

YOU!

I came up with that letter off the top of my head. I'm sure you could do even better. Or just copy mine. Most newspapers these days have ways to send letters to the editor through their web site. You don't even need a stamp! Whatever you do, please come back here and leave a comment. Let us know what paper(s) you contacted and what you wrote.

Yes, I know Preserve is a for-profit company, and this is like free advertising for them. So?
 

Brita® and Preserve® Announce Filter Recycling Program

After months of campaigning to urge Brita to take back and recycle used Brita filters, we (the Take Back The Filter group) are thrilled to announce 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?

The Take Back The Filter web 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
 

A Teaser, a Contest, an Announcement, & Year 2, Week 22 Results: 1.0 oz of plastic waste.

Like last week, I have a bunch of business before the tally.

Teaser: Brita's going to take back and recycle their pitcher filter cartridges!

I received a phone call on Friday (while hanging out at the SF Green Festival) from Drew McGowan, Brita brand manager, alerting me that Brita will indeed begin taking back and recycling pitcher filters beginning in January!

He sent me a copy of the full press release with details, but I've promised not to reveal specifics until Tuesday. What I will tell you is that they seem to have incorporated almost all the elements of our petition in coming up with a solution that keeps jobs here in the U.S. and doesn't rely on shipping the plastic off to China.

Please visit our Take Back The Filter campaign web page on Tuesday for full details of the program. And you can stop sending us your filters. Hooray! Hold onto them until January, when you'll be able to send them in directly for recycling.

Now... we just have to work on Pur and all the other water filter companies...

Contest: What's wrong with this picture?


This is the waste station at the SF Green Festival this weekend: bins for garbage (landfill), compost (the green bin), recycling, and liquids. It's typical of all the stations throughout the event, and there's one thing that doesn't seem right about it. Can you tell what it is? I'll be posting about the Green Festival on Wednesday or Thursday and will discuss this issue. The person who guesses correctly will receive a copy of the Toolbox For Sustainable City Living, by Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew. If there is more than one correct answer, I'll choose randomly.

Announcements: A Carnival and a Conference Call

Come back tomorrow for the 154th Carnival of the Green hosted right here on Fake Plastic Fish.

Then, this Thursday, November 20: Pandora’s Plastic Box - A Conference Call For All.

Healthy Child Healthy World will be hosting the first in a monthly series of conference calls on health and environmental issues. This Thursday, the theme is plastic:

Join us for an open, non-judgmental conversation about plastics (we all have our Achilles’ Heel). Janelle from Healthy Child Healthy World will be giving a quick background on the issue; Jennifer from The Smart Mama will share her Journey to Glass; Jeremiah from ZRecs will talk about assessing the risks and benefits of plastics, and how bloggers can influence corporate behavior and affect change in the marketplace; and Beth from Fake Plastic Fish will discuss the impacts on the environment and living without.

I hope many of you will be able to join in the call to listen and discuss! Here's the call info:

When: November 20, 10am PST
Dial: (218) 339-3600
Access Code: 1036416#

The Tally:



Plastic items used this week but acquired before the plastic project began:

• 1 more dirty, scrungy, chewed up synthetic sponge. At the point they start falling apart and little pieces of plastic sponge wash down the drain, it's time to put them to rest.

New plastic waste:

• 1 plastic pizza thingie from the previous week. FPF reader Froghair took issue with my statement last week that planned to return this thing to the pizzeria and ask them to reuse it. She wrote, "Pardon my skepticism, but do you really think the pizza place is just going to pop that plastic thingie back in their bin and reuse it? Frankly, I hope not, because that's got to be a health code infraction, even if it is washed." She's probably right. So, into Plastic Purgatory it goes, and I will just have to be more conscientious about remembering to request no plastic in the middle of my pizza!


• 1 plastic RX bottle and cap. From Kaiser. We can't return them to be refilled here.


• Wrapper from a Kaiser plastic pill cutter. My doctor gave it to me. I wouldn't normally have accepted it. And in fact, when the pharmacist has tried to give me a plastic pill cutter in the past, I've refused, saying that I'm perfectly capable of cutting a pill with a sharp knife. But when my doctor and I decided that I need only be taking 1/4 of the sleeping pill I use occasionally, I realized a knife was not going to do it. The pills are very small. I really don't think I can cut them into quarters with a kitchen knife without ending up with a powdery mess. So I accepted this chunk of plastic and its wrapper with a sigh. We do what we can and then...

 

Year 2, Week 16 Results: .7 oz of plastic waste. Cool music video.

Why oh why do kitties like to chew on plastic? Arya had X-rays today. She's healing well but has to wait a couple of weeks to get the pin removed from her leg. Feisty girl. Broken bone didn't stop her from jumping up on top of the refrigerator after she got home. A few more weeks of cage, I'm afraid.

News: Take Back The Filter campaign in the NY Times today! Michael was excited to be photographed by the NY Times this weekend while I was away at a meditation retreat. Can you find little black kitty Soots hiding in the photo?

Stay tuned after the plastic tally for a music video that was sent to me today to bring awareness to the problems of plastic in the oceans.

All new plastic waste:

• 3 plastic envelope windows. Notices from Financial West Group, AT&T, & Kaiser Permanente. There were a few solicitations from organizations this week, too, but I sent them back requesting to be removed from the paper mailing list.


• 1 outer wrapper from a case of Instinct canned cat food. Maybe we could get away with just feeding Arya the outer wrapper since she finds it so delicious. Nom nom nom.

Enjoy Micah Wolf's "One by One" music video which was created with the help of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation.


 

Brita Subvertisement: a gift that dropped into our laps tonight!

Please don't let me interrupt the conversation happening on the previous post. I've been reading your comments, even though I don't really have time to respond right now. But I just had to jump in and tell you about a wonderful gift that the Take Back The Filter campaign received today.

First, have you seen the Brita filter ads discouraging bottled water that go "X minutes in/on the.... Forever in the landfill"? For example, a woman on a treadmill with a disposable plastic water bottle that goes, "30 minutes on the treadmill. Forever in a landfill." If you haven't, it might be worthwhile to check them out here.

First, I am not disparaging Brita's campaign. If it's helping to slow the sales of bottled water, I am all for it. But as you know, the plastic Brita filters are also not recyclable, which is why we started the Take Back The Filter campaign to urge Brita to create a way to recycle the filters, as the original Brita company is already doing in Europe.

(Wouldn't it be nice if Brita would make a public announcement that they plan to have a take-back program in place by a definite date? Hint to Brita PR people who might be reading this blog.)

Well, today, independent videographer Jeph Foust of Studio Freshh Audio Video Storytelling gifted us with a brand new "subvertisement" that he and his wife Dorothy put together this morning in support of the campaign. It's already up on YouTube. You can view the YouTube version embedded on this page, or you can visit Studio Freshh's blog to view a higher resolution version.



This video was a complete surprise. While I was at home this morning, taking my shower, feeding the cats, watering my plants, Jeph and Dorothy were at work creating this beautiful gift for our campaign. Of course, it's going to go up on the Take Back The Filter web site this weekend when I do an update, but I just couldn't wait to let you all know about it. Wow. I'm just so grateful and amazed at how our actions can ripple out into the world.

So feel free to forward the video on, embed it in your web page, e-mail it, stumble and digg and whatever it is that you do to let people know about cool things. AND please leave a comment on the YouTube site in support of the campaign!

Then continue with the awesome conversation that's been going on since yesterday. Clif, I laughed at your sleep comment because, in fact, that's exactly what I'm trying!
 

Taking a little blog break

Just when all kinds of exciting things are happening, I'm feeling under the weather (physically) and need to recharge and refocus. So, I'm going to take a little blog break until next week. I know, I teased you on Sunday. Don't worry. I have a fun post up my sleeve. But it will have to wait.

Last Monday, Ideal Bite chose the Take Back The Filter campaign for it's Daily Bite and a few days later Grist published an article about us. Well, we doubled our petition signatures in one week! That rocks, but the extra attention also means extra work right now.

And remember the new Carnival of Trash? It started on Almost Mrs. Average's Rubbish Diet blog in July, moved on to Mrs. Green's My Zero Waste in August, and lands here at Fake Plastic Fish on September 15th. So I need to scramble to scare up some trashy posts. Want to contribute? Write a post (or recycle one you've already written) on waste: reducing, reusing, recycling, refusing, rethinking, um... rotting... any other trashy R's you can come up with... and submit using the Carnival submission form or email me at beth [at] fakeplasticfish [dot] com by September 12. And for this month's carnival only, I'll accept posts even if you don't have a blog! I'll make one for you and put it up. So email me your thoughts on waste (Don't waste your thoughts!) in a coherent form and be a blogger for a day.

What else? Oh, exciting things happening with Green Sangha. Events and board meetings and planning, oh my. If you're in the Bay Area and would like to find out more, let me know. We have an event coming up.

And work. I am, after all, an accountant by day, and it'nearing the end of the fiscal year of one of the companies I work for. Gotta focus. Gotta work. And gotta get through my email.

I read an inspiring quote yesterday that's been a big help. Maybe you've already heard this one. Reportedly, Gandhi said, "Today is going to be a busy day. I must meditate twice as long." Or something like that. There are various versions on the web. I plan to take the concept to heart.
 

CRRA: They know how to do a conference!

As I mentioned, I had the privilege of presenting the Take Back The Filter campaign as part of a panel on zero waste grassroots activism at the conference of the California Resource Recovery Association this past Wednesday. I'll tell you more about the presentation itself in a second. But first, I need to gush a bit about how the waste was handled at this conference, vs. the Blogher conference I attended a few weeks ago, and how easily other organizations could adopt this model for their gatherings.

Granted, CRRA is all about zero waste. It's the whole point of the organization, after all. But so what? Just because other organizations might not cite waste reduction as their purpose for being in existence doesn't mean they can't make it one of their values and strive for zero waste at their gatherings. So, that said, here are a few things I saw that made me smile:

The requisite recycle/compost/trash stations throughout the hotel:



Water stations in every meeting room with actual glasses and no bottled water in sight. There were (unfortunately) bowls of plastic-wrapped hard candies. I wonder how many people actually took them.



Amazingly, there were even compost bins in the bathrooms for paper towels!



At the front registration desk was a box for returning the plastic nametag holders to be reused, as well as a white board tallying how much recycling, composting, or trash the conference has generated over it's 4 days and the total diversion rate, which by Wednesday was an impressive 94.9%.



And by the way, the lunch was served on durable tableware with cloth napkins. There was not a disposable anything in sight. I was told there were 800 registrants at this conference. (Blogher had 1,000.) So, it is possible to feed a large number of people sustainably without resorting to disposable boxes, whether those boxes are compostable or not.

Our presentation itself went really well! Here's the description from the conference brochure:

Working Together Toward Zero -- Grassroot Outreach Efforts/Coalitions With National Impact

In Carbonopoly, whatever card you select, collaboration is the key. To pass Go and to collect a functional future, coalitions, grassroots efforts and the new media — social networking websites like YouTube, Myspace, Facebook, as well as email and even cell phones — are some of the best ways to implement change in your community.

* Sierra Club National Zero Waste Committee, Ann Schneider,
* Clorox/Brita - Take Back The Filter, Beth Terry
* Zero Waste, the "New Media" and The Success Of The Story Of Stuff, Portia Sinnott, LITE Initiatives/Waste Reduction Project
* Zero Waste Los Angeles, Reina Pereira, City of Los Angeles
* Moderator: Stephanie Barger, Earth Resource Foundation

Each of us had about 15 minutes to present the work that we have been doing with a question/answer period at the end. I wish I could tell you more about it, but I was so nervous -- about presenting and also about my kitty -- that once it was over I promptly forgot the whole thing. Kinda like my wedding day. Fun and exciting and I wanted to throw up. Can't wait to do it again! (Present the campaign, that is, not get married.)

Plastic tallies for last week and this week coming up Sunday night, barring anymore unforeseen disasters. My sister and her husband are coming from Maryland to visit, so I may not post a lot next week either. But I do have at least one guest poster coming up, so stay tuned. And if anyone else wants to fill in with a guest post, let me know. I'd be happy to take a little break.

Clif? Are you listening?
 

Take Back The Climate

I've been asked to present the Take Back The Filter campaign (urging Clorox to take back and reuse/recycle used Brita water filter cartridges) as part of a panel at the California Resource Recovery Association's (CRRA) annual conference next week. I am excited to have the opportunity to share the campaign with this audience, and when initially asked, wasn't at all nervous about speaking: I've been talking about not much else for the past 3 months!

Not nervous, that is, until I found out that the theme of the conference is CARBONOPOLY: Climate Change Is Not A Game We Can Lose.

Oh dear. I know about zero waste. I know about the problems of plastic. I know why I don't want Brita filter cartridges to continue to be landfilled or incinerated. But I hadn't related the issue to climate change. In fact, I actually knew very little about global warming except that we're all supposed to use less energy, buy fewer things that need to be shipped, and purchase locally to avoid fuel costs. I've been on the Low Carbon Diet with some friends for several weeks now. But still, I hadn't ever thought about the connection between recycling and global warming. What the heck was I going to say to this group of industry professional?

Thanks to Ann Schneider of Sierra Club's Zero Waste Group for referring me to a fantastic report called, "Stop Trashing The Climate," a joint effort among the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Eco-Cycle, and Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance, which was published in June of this year. This report describes the multiple ways that waste affects our climate, some obvious, and some that may not immediately come to mind.

First, of course, there are the gases produced by landfills and incinerators. These gases are the direct effect of dumping or burning our waste. According to the report, "Landfills are the largest source of anthropogenic methane emissions in the U.S., and the impact of landfill emissions in the short term is grossly underestimated -- methane is 72 times more potent than CO2 over a 20-year time frame." But what about methane captured for energy? At the Hay Road landfill that I visited with Janice Sitton last January, we were told that the methane from the landfill is captured. But according to the findings of the Stop Trashing The Climate report, "The portion of methane captured over a landfill's lifetime may be as low as 20% of total methane emitted."

And incinerators emit not only CO2 but also nitrous oxide (N2O), a greenhouse gas that is 300 times more potent than CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere. In fact, the authors of the report recommend that "Existing incinerators should be retired, and no new incinerators or landfills should be constructed." But what about filters on incinerators that trap the gases and other pollutants?

Here's where we come to the main point of the report, the indirect results of landfilling and incineration that trapping the gases and other discharges from landfills and incinerators doesn't address: "Wasting directly impacts climate change because it is directly linked to resource extraction, transportation, processing, and manufacturing."

The more materials we send to the landfill or incinerator, the more materials must be extracted in order to replace them. And transported. And processed. And every step along the way uses more energy and produces more greenhouse gases than reusing or recycling the materials we already have.

In the case of Brita filters, that means more drilling for oil to make plastic and all the problems associated with that process. It also means transporting the oil, usually from places that are very far from where the oil will be used. And then processing the oil into new plastic pellets. And then shipping the new plastic. Then creating the new plastic filters. And then shipping the filters.

If Brita filters were designed to be reused instead of trashed, many, many greenhouse gas-generating steps in the process could be avoided. And even if, due to regulatory impediments related to the purity of plastic that comes into contact with drinking water, the filters themselves can't be reused, Clorox's development of a way to recycle the materials would still slow the need for more oil and creation of new plastics for other products.

It becomes clear to me that folks who criticize this campaign, or any other extended producer responsibility campaign, on the grounds that it takes energy to ship the used products back the manufacturer are not taking into consideration the environmental costs of creating brand new products to replace those that are trashed.

Of course, there are other major environmental costs to creating new plastic which I haven't addressed in this post, since the focus here is on global warming. I discussed some of them (including harm to the marine environment) in my post, "Plastic is made from oil." But the new (to me) information from the Stop Trashing The Climate report both heartens and saddens me. The link between waste and global warming re-energizes my commitment to source reduction and recycling and gives me an additional argument in support of the Take Back The Filter campaign. But the information also grieves me to think of one more way that we are trashing our world.

This post was included in the first Green Moms Blog Carnival at Organic Mania on August 4, 2008.
 

"Take Back The Filter" takes on "Bay to Breakers"!

(Click photo to see larger view.)

Well, I put out the call, and Tanya and Christa volunteered to help me, dressed as a BRITA filter, get across San Francisco. They came over Saturday night, along with my friend Mark who pretty much majored in costumes and makeup in college, to work on costumes and signs and eat pizza. (BTW, we ordered pizza from Rustica on College Ave and requested it be delivered without that little plastic thing in the middle that keeps the lid from sticking to the cheese. And you know what? The lid and cheese did just fine without that little plastic thing.)

Here's a link to the full article on the Take Back The Filter site.

And here's a link to more photos from the day.

Along the way, dese frat guys with some kine beer machine begged me to be da first water filter to do a "full extension." Wow. That sure was tempting. But I was on a mission and politely declined their generous offer.

Gotta run. Gotta finish up my work and get home so Mark and I can put the finishing touches on our Amazing Race application video. Life in the Fake Plastic Fish tank is never boring.
 

Dare me to dress like a BRITA filter and walk across SF?

This could be me at this Sunday's SF Bay to Breakers because, you know, I have a Barbie Doll body and a giant BRITA filter cartridge in my living room. It could be me if I can get at least one volunteer to walk the 12K (7.65 miles) with me, hold my water bottle, and pass out flyers to the cheering crowds. I'd love to have a whole team of people walking with us and wearing signs that say "www.takebackthefilter.org." But it will only take one confirmed volunteer to get me to actually do it.

Why can't Terrible Person walk with me? Why, because he is running the Bay to Breakers, attempting to break his personal awesome record time of 56 minutes last year. Michael trained. Beth did not. Michael will be finished in under an hour. Beth will be sweating in a cardboard costume for over two, probably. But there's karaoke at The Mint afterwards. And if that's not incentive enough, I just don't know what is!

Don't everyone offer at once!

Have you all signed the petition? We've got over 4,200 signatures at this point, and people have been mailing us used filter cartridges from all over the country. Organic Consumers Association wrote a great blurb about the campaign in their latest newsletter and another well-known environmental organization is preparing to send a letter to Clorox.

For more updates on the campaign, please check out our news section: http://www.takebackthefilter.org/search/label/news, where you can find out more about the call we got from Clorox shortly after the campaign began.

So can I get a volunteer?

BANANA UPDATE: It's looking like Sunny is probably going to be the winner of the contest to find out the reason for the sticky plastic on the stems of organic bananas. She found a link that says the plastic is there to prevent black mold. Regular bananas are dipped in a fungicide which kills mold, but organic bananas are not. Hence, the plastic. Before I declare her the official winner, though, I'd like some confirmation. So I sent an email to Dole tonight to find out about the plastic on their bananas. We'll see if they confirm what she found out.

(I know a lot of people have said it's so checkers can tell the difference between organic and non, but that just doesn't sound right to me. The organic bananas all have stickers on them that say they're organic.)

Okay, gotta get back to working on my costume!
 

Announcement: Phone meeting with Clorox tomorrow!

I haven't posted in a few days. Have been feeling under the weather (as opposed to over the weather? Over the rainbow?) and in between coughs, sending emails to folks to sign the Take Back The Filter campaign petition.

Good news: Just got an email from a representative from Clorox and scheduled a phone meeting for tomorrow at 8:30 Pacific Time. As I write this, we've collected 184 signatures on our petition. It's a great start, but I just know we can do better. If you haven't signed yet, now's the time. Can we get 500 by tomorrow morning???

I don't care if you are not a current Brita customer. You could be in the future if they would take care of their waste, right? And I'm not requiring your email address or even home address (although those are helpful to us to have.) Just name, city, state, zip code.

Sorry to hound you. By next week, I'll be back to my regular plastic-blogging self. And tomorrow I plan to announce the winners of the two children's books. But for now, please help by signing the petition and forwarding it to everyone you know!

Thanks. You guys rock. Now stop rocking for a second and go sign!
 

Brita: Take Back The Filter campaign has begun!

Okay, remember all my posts about how frustrating it was that Brita filter cartridges can be recycled in Europe but not in the U.S.? And how we had our water tested and found it perfectly fine without plastic water filter cartridges? Well, giving up water filters was a fine decision for us here in the SF Bay Area where we have some of the best water in the nation. But it's not a great solution for folks in other areas of North America that may not.

If you'll recall, I set up a recycle_brita Yahoo! group to plan strategy for a campaign to urge Clorox, the company that owns Brita in North America, to develop a similar Take Back Recycling Program for Brita cartridges here. Now, after several months of writing to Clorox and planning our strategy, I'm happy to announce that the Take Back The Filter campaign has officially begun. Join us in asking Clorox to:

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 visit the new web site: http://www.takebackthefilter.org for complete background information and to take action.

What are we asking you to do?

1) Sign the petition at www.takebackthefilter.org.

2) Send me your used Brita filter cartridges. I have set up a mailbox specifically for this purpose. Or, if you live in the Bay Area, you can email me to arrange pickup. Instructions are at www.takebackthefilter.org. At some point, we'll deliver them all to Clorox (whose corporate office is just down the street from me in Oakland) to make a strong, visual statement.

3) If you're feeling really motivated, please write a letter to Clorox. A sample letter is also included at www.takebackthefilter.org, of course.

4) And finally, spread the word. Tell everyone you know. Collect their used cartridges and ask them to sign the petition. We even have a sample e-mail at at www.takebackthefilter.org for you to cut and paste.

If you have a blog, please use the following code to paste this badge onto your site:

<a href="http://www.takebackthefilter.org"><img src="http://www.fakeplasticfish.com/takebackthefilter/images/take_back_the_filter_badge2.gif"  width="160"></a>

Even better, write a blog post and encourage your readers to sign the petition and send us their filters. Wouldn't it be amazing if a truly grassroots campaign like ours could help create change in a major corporation like Clorox?

So who is this "we" I keep referring to? We are Beth, Seth, Juli, Becky, Tom, Nicole, Barb, Margaret, Susan, Cat, and others who joined the recycle_brita Yahoo! group, wrote letters to Clorox and, when Clorox's responses were less than encouraging, created this campaign. You can also read Clorox's form letters to us at www.takebackthefilter.org.

Why am I not giving you more info in this post and why am I not linking to specific pages on the site? Because I really, really, really, really hope you will go to the site and browse around and check it out. It's taken many sleepless nights, but I'm hoping it will be worth it.

Do I believe that getting a company to recycle a few (actually millions, but still) water filter cartridges is the biggest environmental challenge we face? Heck no. But I believe in the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility (which Seth brought to my attention), and this is my contribution towards creating a world in which companies consider the entire life cycle of the products they create, rather than simply pumping out more and more stuff and allowing it to pollute the planet at the end of its useful life.

I wish you could see me bouncing in my chair. I'm so excited to have this campaign finally sprung on the world. Can't wait to find out what happens!
 

Questions and requests for Brita users in U.K. and Central Europe

04/14/2008 Update: If you've reached this page because you want to know how to recycle Brita filter cartridges in North America, please visit http://www.takebackthefilter.org for more information about the campaign to urge Clorox (owner of Brita in North America) to develop a take-back recycling program for these cartridges!

I'm still trying to find out why the North American Brita Corporation will not take back and recycle their used filter cartridges like the European company does. The North American Brita corporation claims that the cartridges themselves use a different technology. That may be true of the On Tap filters, but from photos online, the classic pitcher filters look just the same as ours. Would any reader in the U.K. be willing to send me a classic pitcher filter so I can compare it with the U.S. version? Sending the box and instructions would be really helpful, too. I will pay for the cost of the filter and the shipping. We can do it via PayPal or any other way you'd like.

It does, however, appear that the OnTap faucet cartridges, which I believe are only sold in Central Europe and Asia, are different from ours. In fact, this looks like a better design to me, as the entire housing is not part of the disposable filter. I gather these are not available in the U.K., right? Would someone in a European country that uses these types of filters be willing to send me one of them with the box? Same as above. I will reimburse.

And I'd love to hear from anyone living in Europe who recycles their Brita cartridges. Can you please let me know what country you're in, what type of filter you use (faucet or pitcher and what model), where you take it to recycle, and just what your experience has been using these where you live. I'm trying to gather as much information as I can to present to the North American company.

I'm not planning on having too many more posts about this issue on Fake Plastic Fish. As I mentioned before, I created a Yahoo Group for anyone who wants to look into it further. But I thought tonight this would be a way to gather some info from folks in Europe who are not part of that group.

Thanks! You can contact me directly via email if you don't want to comment. My email address is beth [at] fakeplasticfish [dot] com. (Does it really help to write it out like that? I get so much spam, I wonder if it even matters at this point!)
 

Brita, Green Sangha, Recycled Clothing, 2 Clean 2 B Green, Composts & Landfills & Muddy Shoes, oh my!

04/14/2008 Update: If you've reached this page because you want to know how to recycle Brita filter cartridges in North America, please visit http://www.takebackthefilter.org for more information about the campaign to urge Clorox (owner of Brita in North America) to develop a take-back recycling program for these cartridges!

I've been working on so many other projects this week, I didn't have time to post yesterday, and I barely have time to post tonight. So here are a couple of things I've been doing and also a couple of posts on other blogs that I think are just great:

1) I received enough interest in a possible Brita cartridge recycling campaign that I created a Yahoo Group to discuss the issue further and get feedback on whether or not to proceed. Here's the URL for the Yahoo Group if you'd like to read more or participate:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/recycle_brita/

2) I've been working on Green Sangha's Rethinking Plastics web page. Here's the link. If you're in the Bay Area and would like to get involved, please check it out.

3) National Geographic's Green Guide has an excellent, eye-opening article about what happens to donated clothes, surprisingly entitled What Happens to Donated Clothes?

4) Wise Bread has a great post called Our Obsession to Clean is Making Us Trashy. This is a web site about saving money, and often (although not always) green living and frugality intersect in its articles.

5) Yesterday, I visited a local landfill and commercial compost facility to see for myself what happens to our garbage and the food and yard waste we put into our green bins. I'll be writing about this field trip later.

6) I have to jump on the Yay China! bandwagon (And also Yay Australia!) for their plastic bag ban. Now, if only they'd stop accepting our plastic waste.

7) And one more thing... Next week I'm flying to Hawaii to visit my parents for a few days (and hopefully get my blow dryer fixed.) Are there any Fake Plastic Fish readers in Honolulu (besides my dad) who have tips about local farmer's markets, organic restaurants, other "green" must-sees and must-dos? Please feel free to comment or contact me via e-mail. My e-mail address is in my profile.
 

Take back the Brita filter campaign?

04/14/2008 Update: If you've reached this page because you want to know how to recycle Brita filter cartridges in North America, please visit http://www.takebackthefilter.org for more information about the campaign to urge Clorox (owner of Brita in North America) to develop a take-back recycling program for these cartridges!

I use Google Analytics to show me where Fake Plastic Fish's traffic comes from, and sometimes it's fun to look at the Search terms people have used to find this blog. Going through the list tonight, I found these 81 different related combinations. It's a long list. Feel free to scroll down fast.

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Wow. These are all actual queries typed by people into a Search Engine. Many of them were used by multiple people. But they don't represent all the people in North America trying to find out if their water filter cartridges can be recycled. No. These are ONLY the people who also happened to click on the Fake Plastic Fish link that came up on the search list. How many other people are out there trying to find out how to recycle their water filter cartridges and coming up empty-handed?

The point of this exercise is that I'm trying to gauge how much interest there would be in a campaign to urge Clorox, the company that owns the North American division (including Canada) of Brita, to develop a recycling program for the cartridges.

First, a few facts for those unfamiliar with this issue:

• The Brita company was founded in Germany in 1966.


• In 1992, Brita introduced the first recycling program for filter cartridges. The cartridges are processed at Brita's plant in Germany, where the components are dismantled and reused. Read more about the Brita recycling process here.


• In 2000, the entire North American division of the company was sold to the Clorox Corporation, headquartered in Oakland, CA. (FYI: I incorrectly stated in a previous post that this sale took place in 1988 based on an entry in Wikipedia. Won't be getting info from that source again.)


• Now, while the cartridges from the European company are still collected and recycled, the Brita cartridges from the U.S. and Canada are not. In June of 2007, I sent an email to Brita customer service asking why the American cartridges are not recycled when they are in Europe, and I received an unsatisfactory reply. So I wrote a follow-up email, and received another unsatisfactory reply, stating that the filter cartridges in the U.S. use a different technology than the European ones, but giving no other details.


• In December of 2007, Clorox purchased Burt's Bees in an attempt to enter the "green" market. In a press release in October 2007, Clorox Chairman and CEO Donald R. Knauss states, "With this transaction, we're entering into a new strategic phase for our company, enabling us to expand further into the natural/sustainable business platform. The Burt's Bees® brand is well-anchored in sustainability and health and wellness, and we believe it will benefit from natural and "green" tailwinds. It's in an economically attractive category with a margin structure that will be highly accretive to Clorox. Combined with our new Green Works™ line of natural cleaning products, and Brita® water-filtration products, we can leverage Burt's Bees' extensive capabilities and credibility to build a robust, higher-growth platform for Clorox."

My plea to Clorox is this: If you'd truly like to help the planet by entering the "green" marketplace, you could first begin by "greening" the products you already produce. Providing a take-back recycling program for your water filter cartridges would be a great step, especially considering that the model technology already exisits!

So why am I focusing on Brita rather than other water filter companies? First of all Brita has the #1 market share of pour-through filter cartridges in the U.S. and Canada. It's the #1 faucet-mount filter in Canada and the #2 faucet-mount filter in the U.S. (I don't know who is #1. This information comes from page 14 of Clorox's 2007 Annual Report.)

Second, the recycling infrastructure exists within the European branch of the company already.

And third, Clorox is obviously making a bid to appeal to environmentally-conscious consumers at this time. It would be nice for them to put their money where their mouth is.

So, with this information, I'd like to take a little poll here to find out how much interest there would be in putting energy into such a campaign.

RESIDENTS OF NORTH AMERICA ONLY PLEASE.

Week 10 Results: 5.6 oz of plastic

04/14/2008 Update: If you've reached this page because you want to know how to recycle Brita filter cartridges in North America, please visit http://www.takebackthefilter.org for more information about the campaign to urge Clorox (owner of Brita in North America) to develop a take-back recycling program for these cartridges!

In solidarity with my guy Michael, who left on a jet plane today with his TSA regulation zip-lock bag of liquids and gels, I packed up my plastic waste in a zip-lock type bag that I happened to acquire this week. He's got a conference to attend for a couple of days, and then he'll be joining me in Anaheim as my friend David and I attempt the Disneyland Half Marathon on Labor Day.

Crimany! I've run exactly 4 times since my surgery on June 11. It will be interesting to see if I'm still alive to blog about plastic in a week after dragging my untrained self 13.1 miles through the happiest place on earth. If so, I'll probably have some interesting things to share about plastic in Mickey's world.

So, here's the tally for week 10:

Non-recyclable items used this week but purchased before the plastic project began:

• 8 Refresh Endura single-use eye drop containers (#4 plastic).


• 1 San Francisco Silent Film Festival laminated pass & neck cord. I found this while cleaning out my backpack this week.


• 1 Brita filter cartridge. As I've mentioned before, the filters are encased in a disposable plastic housing. But, with Michael gone and time on my hands, and no one to stop me, I decided to do a little further hands-on research. I used a hand saw to cut through the plastic and reveal the cartridge innards.
  
  
  As you can see, in addition to the housing, the carbon filter has two endcaps, also made of plastic.
  
  My question is this: Why do these cartridges need a disposable housing? Wouldn't it make more sense to sell a permanent housing that you would open to insert a cartridge consisting of just the carbon filter with the endcaps?
  
  That is how the Multi-Pure system is put together, which Scott from Least Footprint recommended to me this weekend. The housing sits on the counter or under the sink, and the cartridge is a carbon block with two plastic end caps. The cartridge only needs to be replaced once a year, resulting in much less plastic waste than with the Brita System.
  
  I also found out this weekend that Brita USA is actually owned by Clorox, that environmentally responsible manufacturer of such products as Clorox bleach, Liquid Plumr, and Glad plastic trash bags. So another reason the cartridges are recyclable in Europe and not in the United States could be because they're not actually made by the same company, and the company that does make them in the U.S. doesn't give a crap!


• 1 Brita cartridge blister pack. (See above.)


• 1 baggie from a ChampionChip timing chip. This is the thing you put on your shoe that keeps track of where you are during a race. This one was from the SF Bay to Breakers in May, and I happened to find it while cleaning.


• 1 plastic wrapper from something I don't remember.

Recyclable items purchased before the plastic project began:

• 1 ground black pepper container (#1 plastic) & lid. Now that the ground pepper is used up, I've switched to buying whole peppercorns in bulk and grinding them in a pepper mill. I'll either reuse this container or recycle it in Daly City.


• 1 Safeway Organics applesauce cup (#7 plastic). I have 1 more of these left to use up and can recycle the cups at work in Daly City.

Now for the new plastic waste:

• Plastic corks from 2 bottles of Boissonneau Chateau Moulin de Ferrand Bordeaux Blanc.


• 1 zip-lock type bag which contained a Jessica Prentice SF bay Area Local Foods Wheel. What a little dilemma I had this week. The Local Foods Wheel was recommended to me by a woman I met at the farmer's market last Sunday. It shows what foods are in season in the Bay Area during the year. What a great idea! Yet, when I went to purchase the Local Foods Wheel, I found it packaged in a very large zip-lock bag. So I e-mailed Jessica Prentice to ask about her decision to use this kind of packaging. She wrote back that she wanted to use biodegradable materials but hadn't been able to find a bag in the right size. I've offered to help her find a more sustainable type of packaging. We'll see what happens.

That's it. I didn't buy any other plastic last week.

Hey, I love all of your comments, and it will be especially nice to get them this week while Michael is away.

Brita water filter follow up

04/14/2008 Update: If you've reached this page because you want to know how to recycle Brita filter cartridges in North America, please visit http://www.takebackthefilter.org for more information about the campaign to urge Clorox (owner of Brita in North America) to develop a take-back recycling program for these cartridges!

I received the following e-mail from Brita yesterday in response to my 2nd e-mail to them:

From: "Brita Consumer Services" brita@consumerreply.com
To: beth@coloringthevoid.com
Subject: Reference Number: 4959167
Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2007 16:48:09 -0500

Ms. Beth Terry
[address omitted]
Reference Number: 4959167

Dear Ms. Terry,

Thank you for writing back.

The technology used in the filters in some countries is different than what is used in the USA. This is why our filters are not considered recyclable. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Again, thank you for contacting us.

Sincerely,

Hal Frankford
Consumer Response Representative
Consumer Services

-----------------------------------------------

I'm sorry. This is not an acceptable answer to me. First of all, I'm not sure I buy it. Second, if it's true, what could possibly be the reason for having different technologies in different countries?

Still searching for a different water filter solution...
 

Water Filters & my letter to Brita

04/14/2008 Update: If you've reached this page because you want to know how to recycle Brita filter cartridges in North America, please visit http://www.takebackthefilter.org for more information about the campaign to urge Clorox (owner of Brita in North America) to develop a take-back recycling program for these cartridges!

So I really need your input on this one! What method of water filtration do you use and why? Are you able to recycle the filter? One of the items in my plastic waste pile from last week was a very heavy used Brita water filter cartridge. What to do with it? I checked Brita's web site and found out that in Britain, they have a recycling program. However, there was no mention of recycling on the U.S. web site, so I sent the following letter and received the following response:

Note sent on web site contact form: http://www.brita.com/contact_form_us.php
Re: Brita On Tap System
Questions/Comments: I understand that Brita filters can be recycled in Europe. Can they be recycled in the US? Is there any address to send them to?

Thanks,
Beth Terry

-----------------------------------------

June 27, 2007
Ms. Beth Terry
[Address Omitted]
Reference Number: 4959167

Dear Ms. Terry,

Thank you for contacting us about Brita On Tap Filter - Regular. We always appreciate hearing from our consumers.

We appreciate your interest in our product, as well as your concerns about the environment. The BRITA water filter system's ion-exchange resin removes heavy metals from your water by an actual exchange; that is, hydrogen ions are released into the water to replace the ions of such potentially hazardous substances as lead and copper. Because the BRITA filter is designed to trap these contaminants, it is not considered recyclable using available technology. Nonetheless, we do share your concerns, and we make every attempt to use product formulations and packaging which will be safe and effective, while at the same time producing a minimal environmental impact. I would like to take this opportunity to describe some of the actions we have taken.

At BRITA we recognize that recycling and solid waste reduction are the most viable long-term solutions for our solid waste problem, so we have tried to focus our efforts in these directions. We use recycled packaging material whenever possible. The paper used for most of our inserts contains 35% post-commercial and 15% post-consumer recycled paper. In addition, the scrap plastic generated in the production of BRITA systems is reground and used again for new parts. Both of these methods reduce the amount of waste going to our landfills. We are doing our part to reduce the amount of heavy metal contaminants in landfills by using printing ink with reduced metal content on our packaging.

Of course, reuse and recycling are not the only methods for reducing solid waste. We have come to recognize that packaging materials can often be reduced without compromising durability. For instance, while conversion of our BRITA Standard carton from a dual structure to a single corrugated carton resulted in approximately 6% reduction in material, we have found that the new cartons provide very effective protection for the product during shipping.

I hope this information reassures you that the people at BRITA share your concern for the environment.

Again, thank you for contacting us.

Sincerely,

Hal Frankford
Consumer Response Representative
Consumer Services

----------------------------------------

So as you can see, he didn't even bother addressing the point about the filters being recyclable in Europe. Therefore, I sent this follow-up question today:

Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 19:22:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Beth Terry"
Subject: Re: Reference Number: 4959167
To: brita@consumerreply.com

Thank you for your prompt response. I have a follow-up question. Do the Brita filters sold in Europe use a different technology from the ones sold in the U.S.? I found the following question and answer on the European Brita web site:

"Are Brita cartridges recyclable?
All components of the Brita cartridge are recyclable. Cartridges returned to Brita will be returned to our own recycling plant in Germany where the component parts are separated and processed for secondary use. Cartridges can be returned via our Freepost address below: BRITA RECYCLING, FREEPOST NAT17876, Bicester, OX26 4BR."

Is there some reason that the U.S. filters cannot be recycled but the European ones can? I am really trying to find a way to be as ecologically responsible as I can.

Thanks,
Beth Terry

-----------------------------------------

In addition, I sent an e-mail today to several other water filter companies asking whether their filters can be recycled. I found 2 companies online that advertise that they recycle their filters, however there are problems with both. Abundant Earth has a recycling program for their filters, which use copper-zinc (KDF) in combination with coconut shell carbon. But another company, Aquasana, says that they "no longer use KDF-55 in drinking water filters because high levels of copper are not good for the brain." That's it. No citation or other reference. Don't know what that means. (BTW, I e-mailed Aquasana today to find out if their filters are recyclable. I'm guessing not.)

The other company that advertises a filter recycling program is TerraFlo. However, a statement on their home page indicates that they haven't been taking any new orders since January of this year. Also, it's very odd that nowhere on their site do they tell you what kind of filtration method is used. (Unless I missed it. It's not in the FAQ.)

I've been reading about other methods such as reverse osmosis and distillation, which seem to be harmful because they leach all of the beneficial minerals out of the water.

So I need help. What method do you use to filter water? What do you do with the used filter?