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Growing up I drank from a farm's well. You want bad-tasting H20? Try Iowa well water. Now I'm drinking LA tap and loving it. But for discerning palates out there, tap water has a "taste." A lot of people use a filter to get rid of the tap taste. Filters aren't as wasteful as bottled water, but they do generate some waste in the form of water filter cartridges. Reusable filters are available. Those are recommended, but if you are not using a permanent filter, then you can recycle your water filter cartridges.
Brita and TerraFlo filters both have recycling programs for their old cartridges.
If your filter is not one of those two listed brands, you can recycle the empty, #5-plastic cartridge at Whole Foods. But you're probably going to have to open the filter and remove the sandy charcoal. You can:
- Scatter the sand and charcoal on your yard.
- Put the sand in a plastic shopping bag and throw it in the dumpster.
Then recycle the empty shell. (Some filters may not be made out of #5 plastic. They can be placed in the recycle bin.)
Some might not want to put the impurities captured by the old filter on their yard, but I don't see it being a big deal, especially since humans can drink copious amounts of the unfiltered tap water and live healthily. Unless your water supply is officially polluted, you should be OK throwing the sand and charcoal in your flower garden.
Not an Option?: Brita's take-back program is run through Whole Foods the same place that allows you to drop off #5 plastic. You could throw the non-Brita filter in with the Brita filters and hope nobody notices. But you probably shouldn't do that, and I don't think I'm allowed to recommend that. Call your local Whole Foods and see if they'll take off-brand filters.
