Clorox Asked to Recycle Brita Filters by California Product Stewardship Council

The California Product Stewardship Council has become the latest in a number of groups and individuals to ask Clorox to find a way to recycle or take back Brita filters in the U.S. the way it does in Europe.

The CPSC is an organization of local governments throughout California who aim to shift California’s product waste management system from one focused on government funded and ratepayer financed waste diversion to one that relies on producer responsibility in order to reduce public costs and drive improvements in product design that promote environmental sustainability.

Brita is a European company that is now part of Clorox. 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.

After a story in June on CNET, a website was established to circulate a consumer petition and generate awareness.

The furor erupted after a campaign by Clorox and Nalgene urged consumers to give up disposable plastic water bottles and fill a Nalgene bottle with Brita-filtered water.