08/05/08 Campaign Update: Encouraging sign from Clorox CEO!

Here's a bit of positive news in the Brita recycling campaign. Today, one of our supporters shared with me a letter from Clorox CEO Don Knauss she received in response to her letter to the company. In the past, those of us who wrote letters to Clorox executives asking for Brita recycling received impersonal form letters from Brita employees other than those addressed in our original letters. (See Letter #1 and Letter #2.)

But recently, consumer Sharon Rogers received a response signed by the CEO himself with a personal handwritten comment at the bottom. Here's the full text of the letter. View the PDF version to see the handwritten signature and comment.

Dear Ms. Rogers,

Thank you for taking the time to contact me regarding Brita. We truly value your loyalty to one of our brands. We appreciate hearing from consumers, and I would like to assure you that we share your concerns about the recyclability of Brita filters in the U.S.

It's true that Brita filters are recyclable in other countries, because they have recycling programs for such materials. As of now, the United States city waste management systems are not equipped to collect Brita filters for recycling purposes.

We understand that's not ideal, and we are working with waste management to explore other options, as we are dedicated to sustainability efforts and ensuring customers are happy with our products.

Again, we appreciate your business and your feedback.

Sincerely,

Don Knauss

[Handwritten Note: We are focussed on this issue!]

This is great news, and we appreciate that Clorox/Brita are listening to their customers and intend to make Brita recycling a reality.

If you haven't yet sent a letter, now's the time!

Please write to Clorox CEO Don Knauss and let him know that you are glad the company is working on the issue of Brita recycling and that you'd like to know when we can expect a program to be in place.

Don Knauss, CEO
The Clorox Company
1221 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94612

It's great that they have the intention, and we must continue to urge them to keep the issue on the front burner. Until Clorox is ready to make an official announcement about Brita recycling, we will continue to gather signatures, send letters, and spread the word.

And please continue to send us your filters! Wouldn't it be great if we could deliver them to Clorox at the time that the recycling program is finally announced? Let's all be part of the solution!

Beth

7/11/08 Campaign Update: 6,700 signatures, 157 Filters. Keep 'em coming!

The Take Back The Filter campaign continues, as we collect not only signatures and filters but also support from organizations and notice from the press.

In an article on Cnet News.com ("Clorox on Brita cartridge recycling: Not so easy" June 24, 2008), Clorox representative Drew McGowan tells reporter Hanna Sistek, "Our filters are made with carbon. Any impurities that can be found in water will stick to the carbon, which becomes nonusable, which is why it has to be changed.... At this time, there is no way to recycle the carbon."

Yet the original Brita company in Europe does just that. In Brita's own facility, the filters are dismantled, the carbon is cleaned and reused in water treatment facilities, the ion exchange resin is cleaned and used in new Brita filters, and the plastic is ground up and used in new plastic items. All parts of the filters are recycled. To date, Clorox has not provided an explanation for why it can't do what its European counterpart has already been doing since 1992.

The latest organization to endorse the campaign, the California Product Stewardship Council, has written a letter to Clorox asking that question. Read CPSC's letter to Clorox here.

What will it take to let Clorox know that consumers are serious about recycling? We'd love to present them with a minimum of 10,000 signatures and 1,000 filters, including filters from every U.S. state and Canadian province. We're getting there, but it's going to take all of us spreading the word to everyone we know.

Do you have ideas for us? Leave a comment or email beth@takebackthefilter.org.

Additional bloggers and news sites that have written about the campaign since the last update include:

Bugs and Brooms
East Bay Express article, June 18, 2008
Citizen Green
Green Grown and Sexy
Improvilaw
Northern California Recycling Association online newsletter, July 2008
Personal Issues
Rockridge Residents.org
Sustainlane Online Newsletter, June 2008 Edition 59
Sustainlane Take Back The Filter review

Sites that have added a link or our campaign badge:

Gray Matters
Lacey - Journalism Blog
Traveling Em
 

06/18/08 Update: 6,100 signatures, 94 filters, getting businesses involved

To date, the Take Back The Filter campaign has collected over 6,100 petition signatures. We've also received 94 filters from 19 U.S. states and D.C. Is your state listed on the sidebar?

Apparently, Clorox is listening. An article in the online magazine Grist this week reported that when questioned about Brita recycling during the recent Sustainable Brands conference, a Clorox rep replied, "We're working on it." However, Clorox has not provided any concrete information to us since our first contact with them back in April. We think they still need a lot more convincing.

So we continue to work on finding creative avenues for getting the word out and expect a couple of print articles this week.

We've also gained support from the business sector, with endorsements from eCycle Group in Southern California, a company that understands take-back recycling programs, and Sacramento-based Synchrosina Creative Services, an organization that appreciates thoughtful product design. Both companies wrote about the campaign on their company blogs. And Synchrosina sent a letter to Clorox on company letterhead. (Read Synchrosina's letter here.)

Do you have a business that appreciates the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility? Please send a letter to Clorox on company letterhead and then forward it to us. We'll post it here. And if you've got practical recycling ideas for Clorox, be sure and let us (and them) know that too.

Here is our update of the latest blogs and web sites that have promoted the campaign this week or added the badge to their site:

Civic Lessons
Dangling Mind
F is for Fischer
Frugally Green in the City
Glossip
Green L.A. Girl
Greenopolis
Have Fun * Do Good
Knee Jerk Reaction
Lime
Needs More Gingham
Procrastinating in Pittsburgh
Stumbling Toward Enlightenment
The Tardy Homemaker
Thieves in the Temple

Remember, if you have a blog or web site, please mention the campaign. We'll link back to you here.
 

06/10/08: Please help us spread the word!

Many, many thanks to Co-op America for endorsing the campaign last week and posting an announcement in their online newsletter. This kind of support from national organizations really, really helps to spread the word.

But, as you know, there are many more Brita users who don't subscribe to online newsletters and who may not belong to environmental organizations. Still, they want a way to recycle their filters. Every day we receive petition signatures from folks who just happened upon the site by Googling "recycle Brita filter." Imagine how many more people wonder how to recycle them but don't think to check online. That's why we need your help to spread the word.

Do you belong to a church, community group, PTA, mother's group, or other type of mailing list? Please consider posting an announcement in the group's newsletter or bulletin, whether online or in print. Already, we have people coming to the site from miscellaneous online forums, blogs, local newsletters, church announcements, and just today a local mother's group. That's great and we need to keep it going.

Are you a member of any other environmental, consumer, or social justice organization that you feel could endorse or help promote the campaign? Please let them know about us. We have a whole page of ideas for how both individuals and organizations can help spread the word.

We'd love you to be our MySpace friend or join our FaceBook group. And please let others know about the campaign through those social networking venues.

What other ideas do you have? Please leave a comment here with any suggestions for us. We want to hear any and all of them!

Beth
 

Join our new Yahoo! group to meet others & arrange filter collection.

We realize that collecting Brita filters individually through the mail is inefficient and uses much more fuel than if filters could be collected locally and mailed in bulk to us. So we've set up a new Yahoo! Group so that supporters can meet others in their local area and arrange for collection/pick up.

This is your group to use. Think of it in the way you might use Freecycle or Craigslist. Use ordinary caution when dealing with people you don't know. It's up to you all to decide how to handle postage costs or other issues. But we just wanted to provide this forum to make it easier to connect.

Thus far, we've received 81 filters and created a new tally on the sidebar of the Take Back the Filter web site for those who are interested in keeping track. Please check the list. Is your state listed yet? We'd love to collect filters from consumers in every U.S. state and Canadian province.

Beth
 

06/02/08 Campaign Update: Over 5,000 signatures, over 50 filters, many more links

Special thanks go out to the Organic Consumers Association for publicizing the Take Back The Filter campaign in two issues of its online newsletter, Organic Bytes.

To date, we've collected over 5,000 signatures and 53 used filters from consumers in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Washington, DC. Is your state missing? Can you help us collect filters from every U.S. state and Canadian province? Please send them our way!

We also want to thank all the bloggers and organizations that have written about the campaign on their sites. The latest additions include:

365 Days of Trash
Achieving Sustainability
Another Limited Rebellion
Brooklyn Green Team
Continental Junto
Do-Greater
Eco Women: Protectors of the Planet!
The Good Human
Green Plan(t)
GreenBlog
KNERQ
Lunapads Blog
Mint Green Lifestyle
New American Dream's Carbon Conscious Consumer blog
Nicola Knits
Organic Consumers Association's Organic Bytes Newsletter #134
Organic Consumers Association's Organic Bytes Newsletter #135
OrganicMania
Our Friendly Earth
Paradoxes of Whole Living
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Scream to be Green
Searching for God Knows What
Shazam in the Kitchen
Sierra Club's Zero Waste page
Sleep is the New Sex
Something Rich and Strange
Tao of Change
UGOGRN
The V-Blog
What? Amber Blogs!

And here are bloggers who have added a link or badge to their sidebar:

Bugs and Brooms
Drug Induced Coma
Garden Misadventures
Genuinely Jenny
Mom2-2GoodBoys
My Thoughts, My Crafts, My Kids, My Life
News from Bwlchyrhyd
Purposeful in Puyallup
SJSFalter+

We don't have any further information from Clorox, but we know that our efforts are making a difference, so please continue to help us spread the word!

Beth
 

05/23/2008: Sierra Club sends letter to Clorox urging BRITA take-back program!

Last week, the Sierra Club, SF Bay Chapter sent a letter to Clorox asking the company to develop a take-back re-use/recycling program for BRITA cartridges. This letter will be posted on the National web site and other chapters encouraged to write their own letters. See the original PDF copy of the letter here. Or read the text below.

Are you a member of an organization that might support the Take Back The Filter campaign? Please e-mail beth@takebackthefilter.org and let us know!

May 17, 2008

Dan Gagen, BRITA Brand Manager
The Clorox Company
1221 Broadway
Oakland, California 94612

May 13, 2008

Dear Mr. Gagen:

Sierra Club, San Francisco Bay Chapter was recently approached by the "Take Back the Filter" campaign in Oakland to join in asking you to implement a program for collecting, recycling and reusing Brita water filters, which are a component of a product line you own. The Sierra Club believes that increased recycling and the adoption of "Extended Producer Responsibility" (EPR) are key components of reducing waste from the production cycle. By recycling and reusing products like the Brita water filter, the Clorox Company can keep tons of usable material from being needlessly discarded and thrown in land fills. Therefore, we join the "Take Back the Filter" campaign in asking you to:

1) Redesign the Brita filter cartridges so that the plastic housing can be refilled rather than discarded each time the filter is changed. After reviewing your product, it appears to the Sierra Club that redesigning the filter to allow the plastic housing to be reused rather than discarded, is possible without extensive redesign.

2) Provide a take-back program so that used cartridges can be returned to the company for recycling. The system that we favor would involve setting up collection stations at the retail stores selling Brita products (such as exists in Europe). An alternative to this might be a system whereby you provide customers with a pre-paid postage envelope in which they can send their used filter back to you. Hewlett-Packard currently does this with their toner cartridges.

3) Create a system for the cartridges to be dismantled and recycled/reused domestically rather than land filled, incinerated, or shipped overseas. When the take-back program for the Brita filters is implemented, the Sierra Club urges Clorox to build or contract with a facility in a location with stringent environmental regulations. Shipping the filters to Asia for reprocessing in an ecologically damaging manner would defeat the entire purpose of the program.

By making the necessary effort to redesign the plastic housing of your water filters, by implementing a take-back program in collaboration with your retail partners, and by doing this in a manner that does not damage the local environment, we are confident the Clorox Company will set an example of producer responsibility and environmental stewardship that will be appreciated by your customers as well as the
Sierra Club.

Sincerely,
Norman La Force
Chair, Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter

NLF:sw
cc: Don Knauss, CEO
Jon Balousek, Vice President, Specialty Division
Drew McGowan, Brand Media Relations

05/20/2008: BRITA filter crosses SF at Bay to Breakers to promote TBTF campaign!

(Click photo to see larger view.)

Sunday was a great day for the race, and "race" we did across San Francisco spreading the word about the Take Back The Filter campaign. Alongside Beth, dressed as a BRITA pitcher filter cartridge, marched volunteers Tanya, as a German girl wondering why BRITA filters are recyclable in Germany but not the U.S., and Christa, dressed as a combination incinerator/landfill (with actual BRITA filters combined with other garbage attached to her skirt) urging folks not to let their filters go up in smoke.

We passed out little flyers (click here if you'd like some to print and pass out [PDF format]) and explained the campaign to many people who enthusiastically pledged to sign the petition and spread the word. At the Footstock Costume Contest, we took the stage and announced the campaign to an appreciative crowd.

Now that the costume and signs have been created, look for us to take to the streets again to gather signatures and support. Would you like us to visit your venue? E-mail beth@takebackthefilter.org. Want to make your own BRITA costume? Contact me and I'll send you instructions for how I made mine. Have more ideas for campaign promotion? We want to hear them!

Click here to view more photos from our day at the Bay to Breakers.
 

05/15/2008: Escaped BRITA filter needs your help to get across San Francisco this Sunday!

This may look like ordinary white poster board, but in a few days it will transform into a BRITA water filter costume I'll wear to cross San Francisco at the ING Bay to Breakers this Sunday in an effort to publicize the campaign to a wider audience. Thing is, I can't do it alone!

I'd love to have at least one volunteer to help pass out flyers along the route. More volunteers would be even better. Let's create a last-minute team of folks wearing www.takebackthefilter.org signs on their fronts and backs and helping the BRITA cartridge escape the landfill.

Please e-mail me at beth@takebackthefilter.org if you're interested in participating this Sunday. It'll be fun!

Beth
 

05/09/2008: The filters are coming! The filters are coming!

BRITA water filter cartridges are starting to arrive from all over the country: Berkeley, CA; Pearland, TX; Milford, NJ; Baltimore, MD; Montgomery, AL! We've collected 22 so far and hope that number will increase dramatically as the campaign progresses.

One of Clorox's contentions is that consumers are not willing to pay a little extra for filters that are recyclable. We hope that recyclable filters will not cost more. But the fact that people are willing to pay for postage to ship their filters across the country proves that for at least some of us, protecting the environment is worth a little extra monetary cost.

So please keep those filters coming! Organize a group collection for your school, office, or neighborhood and send them all at once. Publish an ad on your local Craigslist or Freecycle Group requesting BRITA filters. And don't forget, we want BRITA faucet filters too.

I'll post regular updates of the numbers collected here. Stay tuned!
 

04/30/2008: Over 2,000 signatures and many more web sites supporting the campaign!

We've been especially pleased that No Impact Man Colin Beavan wrote a terrific article about the campaign that has helped to put us over 2,000 signatures. Many more bloggers and web sites are jumping on the bandwagon. Here are more sites that have promoted the campaign since I last reported on 4/19:

Apartment Therapy's Re-Nest
Carla Golden's Get Healthier Blog
Drinking Liberally
Eco Geekos
Giveback
Green Daily
Greener One
LibraryLeaf
No Impact Man
Prairie Dreams
Rites of Passage
RyKri
Sean Ward's Blog
Simply Authentic
Sucker For Marketing
Tiny Choices
Touch of Avalon

Other sites that have added the badge or link:

Memories of Mine to Thine
Midnightsky Fibers on LiveJournal
Oh Hello Baby
One Size Fits All
Our Friendly Earth
Paradigm Shifted

This list doesn't even include all the various forums and discussion threads containing links to the campaign. So please keep it up. It's working!

And finally, "Take Back The Filter" is now on FaceBook! Please join our group and help us spread the word!

Beth
 

4/29/2008: Take Back the Filter Catches Clorox’s Attention

Earlier this month, our group efforts were rewarded as we caught the attention of Clorox. On the 17^th, Beth received an email from an individual representing Clorox asking to meet with her. The email said,

“I've seen you Web site and your campaign and would love to speak with you personally so I can explain what we are doing as a company and potentially work together towards a solution.”

Progress came quickly considering the group was founded in January of this year!

The meeting with the Clorox representative shed some light on Clorox’s stance, but left many questions as well. Clorox continued to defend the uncertainty behind recycling filters in the US citing barriers with current waste management practices, consumer demand, and economic feasibility (meaning they aren’t sure they are willing to bear the costs of a recycling program or whether their customers would be willing to do so).

Our group has followed this conversation up with a letter of our concerns, including our thoughts on sending plastic to China for recycling if (and when) a filter recycling program is instituted.

(Side note: Why are we so concerned about plastic recycling happening over seas rather than here at home? Please take a look at the following BBC report to understand what happens when our plastic waste is shipped to Asia.)

This early conversation with Clorox indeed reiterated the need for this campaign to push forward. It is vital we show Clorox that the demand is there for a filter recycling program.

Luann

04/19/2008: Over 500 signatures and spreading across the Internet!

We've collected our first 500 signatures, and news about the campaign is spreading across the Internet. Here's a list of sites we know about so far that have written about the "Take Back The Filter" campaign, in alphabetical order:

Allie's Answers
Athena's Armoury
Bad Human
Bean Sprouts
Blue Collar Crunch
Burbanmom's Going Green
Californians Against Waste
Crunchy Chicken
Eco 'Burban
Environmental Working Group's Enviroblog
Everyday Trash
Fake Plastic Fish
Frugal Nuts Are Green
Green Bean Dreams
Green Made Simple
Gruppie Girl
It's A Green, Green, Green, Green World
L.A. Times Emerald City Blog
Low Impact Home
Organic Picks
Riot4Austerity
Rob's World
Surely You Nest
The_Extra_Ordinary

And other sites have put up our badge:

Happy Vegan Face
Wild Orchids For Trotsky

I apologize if I've missed anyone. Please let me know. And if you have a blog and would like to be listed among our blogger supporters, please write about the campaign and let us know. We'll be happy to link to your site!

500 signatures is a great start, but we're going to need many, many more to show Clorox that Brita filter waste is an issue that's very important to consumers. Please keep spreading the word. I'll have more tools for you to use in the coming days!

Beth
 

04/14/2008: We've received our first used filter cartridge!

The first day of the campaign, and already we've received one used filter cartridge to return to Brita. This one came from a supporter in Berkeley, CA. Hoping this is the first of many.