Environmental Leader

A campaign to get Clorox to implement a water filter recycling program similar to Brita’s in Europe has collected 6,267 signatures, CNet News.com reports.

The petition urges Clorox to redesign its Brita filter cartridges so that the plastic housing can be refilled, rather than discarded, each time the filter is changed; provide a take-back program, like the one in Europe; and create a system for the cartridges to be dismantled and for the components to be recycled or reused domestically.

The Brita filters use carbon to filter impurities from the tap water. “At this time, there is no way to recycle the carbon,” Brita spokesperson Drew McGowan tells CNet.

McGowan says the company is regulated by the Water Quality Association and the National Sanitation Foundation. “Even if we make a recyclable filter tomorrow, it would take one to two years before it could be implemented.”

A Nalgene and Brita campaign launched last year at the same time the bottled water industry was being hammered, encouraged consumers to filter tap water at home.

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