10/29/08 Campaign Update: NY Times article & filter collection at Green Festival

Well, it's been over a month since I posted an update, and we've gotten more signatures, more filters, more endorsements, and more press. So, here are the current numbers:

Signatures: 16,003
Filters: 478 from 36 states & DC.

We'd love some filters from Delaware, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, & Wyoming.



National Press: The New York Times included a short piece on the Take Back The Filter Campaign in its Business Section on Monday, October 6: Pressure Is on to Recycle Water Filters, by Mya Frazier. Check it out. Brita's comment is a bit confusing. On the one hand, they say nationwide recycling would be too expensive for any one company to take on. But on the other hand, they tell us that they may begin a test program next year.

Let's hope the test program goes forward and is supported by consumers! We'd love for the filters you've sent us to be included in that first batch. In the meantime, please continue to send letters to Brita urging them to recycle responsibly. Please stress that we want green recycling jobs created here at home, rather than outsourced to Asia.

Write:

Mr. Don Knauss, Chairman & CEO
The Clorox Company
1221 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94612



Endorsement: We're thrilled to receive the endorsement of Food and Water Watch, which has agreed to help collect filters at the Washington DC Green Festival. Please bring used filters to the Food & Water Watch booth. Here are the logistics:

November 8-9, 2008
Saturday 10AM - 7PM
Sunday Nov. 11AM - 6PM

Washington D.C. Convention Center
801 Mount Vernon Place, NW
Washington, DC 20001

Food & Water Watch's Executive Director, Wenonah Hauter, had this to say about the campaign:
Food and Water Watch’s Take Back the Tap campaign advocates for clean, affordable public water for all. We urge consumers to drink tap water rather than bottled water and to support federal funding for public water systems. Choosing home tap water filtration rather than drinking bottled water saves consumers money while reducing waste and greenhouse emissions produced in the production and transportation of bottled water. Drinking tap water also keeps national water resources in local hands, supporting public water systems.

We support Take Back the Filter’s campaign pressuring Clorox to recycle filters responsibly. Drinking filtered tap water should not compromise a consumer’s concern for water quality over his/her concern to reduce plastic litter clogging our nation’s landfills.

I've been asked by several people whether it's better to buy bottled water since the bottles are recyclable while the Brita filters are not. My response: PLEASE STOP BUYING BOTTLED WATER! There is more plastic in 300 water bottles than in one Brita filter. And the environmental impact of bottling and shipping water long distances is huge. We are not advocating bottled water. We simply want a solution that is as green as it can be. And since Brita in Europe has found a way to recycle the filters, we think that Clorox in the U.S. ought to be able to do the same.



Here are all the other web sites and blogs that have either mentioned the campaign or added our badge since the last update:

Babbling
By What Shall We Call Her?
CPSC Action & Education
Garden Supermart: Practical Green Living
Green & Clean Mom
Green Peas
Green Right Now
Green Unlimited
Melodies in Marketing
Ode Magazine
Outside Blog
Peanuts and Stilettos
PieGirl
Plenty Magazine Online
Shaffner Photo
The Daily City
The Day After An Inconvenient Truth
The Organized McTatty
The Overbrook Foundation
Ventnor Permaculture

Let us know if we've missed anyone. If you have a web site or blog, please write about the campaign. We'll mention you in the next news update and link to you on our Blogroll page!
 

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