How to Recycle Old Brita Filters

Countless Americans use Brita water filters to take the taste out of their tap water. For those with a sensitive palate, it's a good alternative to buying bottled water in disposable jugs.

But what do you do with the old filters once you're done?

Few communities accept No. 5 plastics for recycling, leaving most with no choice but to toss them or squirrel them away in hopes that the recycling markets change. (Ever wonder What Recycling Symbols on Plastics Mean?

There's another option, and according to greenbiz.com, it's about to get even easier, and cheaper.

Recycline already accepts No. 5 plastics by mail. Just box up your used yogurt containers, water filters and other No. 5s and mail them in (details on the gimme5 program). Recycline transforms the waste plastics into toothbrushes, kitchen products and other household items. (Recycline's toothbrush set is among The Daily Green's 20+ Green Gifts Under $20.)

Starting in January, Recycline will install drop-off bins at select Whole Foods Markets (the company has yet to announce its list of participating stores).

For Whole Foods shoppers, that will make recycling No. 5 plastics easier and free. For the rest of us, there's still the mail-in program, which Recycline assures us saves more energy and natural resources than is consumed by shipping. It also eases the conscience.

Meanwhile, greenbiz.com reports that the activist group Take Back the Filter campaign is lobbying Brita (owned in North America by Clorox, which has received heaps of good press by buying Burt's Bees and starting its Green Works line of green cleaning products, endorsed by the Sierra Club) to start its own recycling program.

Correction: Take Back the Filter has claimed success in this campaign because Clorox is a partner with Recycline in the filter take-back program. So kudos to Take Back the Filter and to Clorox, and our apologies for the slip-up!