Routinely replacing your old refrigerator water filter with a new one is of great importance to keep your drinking water cleaner and safer and the air inside your refrigerator fresh. But the replacement of a filter at least once every six months or every 200-300 gallons of water is a tremendous burden on the environment. Just image how much trash Americans add to the landfill by throwing away filters twice every year! It adds up.
Refrigerator water filters join the efforts to protect the environment by encouraging the public to drink tap water, sparing landfill that may otherwise be occupied by excessive amounts of used water bottles.
You can carry your filter’s eco-friendliness forward by recycling it, but you may have to do a little detective work first since the recycling process varies by refrigerator manufacturer and filter type.
1. Contact your refrigerator manufacturer for information on recycling programs
You can contact your refrigerator manufacturer by mail or telephone, and ask them if any recycling programs for refrigerator water filters are available. In ordinary circumstances, the manufacturer will accept filters for recycling via mail or recommend a drop-off location for a recycling program.
In 2014, Whirlpool launched the Refresh & Recycle refrigerator water filter recycling program, allowing consumers to recycle their used filters for a small cost. The program accepts refrigerator water filters from any manufacturers.
However, you can’t always count on refrigerator manufacturers to help dispose of your used filters, especially since some of them haven’t launched recycling programs yet. To address the problem, we’d like to offer the following alternative methods.
2. Consult your local recycling center
You can contact your local recycling center, and ask them about the proper ways to deal with your used refrigerator water filter. They may be able to tell you how to take apart the device and recycle its parts. Then follow their instructions and sort and recycle the parts piece by piece.
3. Place your used refrigerator water filter in recycling bins for collection
Place your used refrigerator water filter shell in curbside recycling bins for collection after cleaning and drying it. But before it, you should contact your local recycler to find out what level of plastic they accept - many accept only #1 and #2, others accept up to #5 and higher. If your refrigerator’s manufacturer did not provide you with the information, look for the type of plastic printed on the shell - you’ll find a “1,” “2,” “3,” “4,” or “5” surrounded by three arrows that form a triangular shape.
4. Don’t dispose of your used refrigerator water filter like this:
To protect the environment, please never throw away charcoal from your used refrigerator water filter to your garden or any other lands that are not used for collecting hazardous wastes.
Refrigerator water filters are especially designed to absorb impurities and contaminants such as minerals, chemicals, and bacteria in tap water, so they are very likely to contain sediments that are harmful to your soil after working for a long period of time.
Another problem is that Mavea filters, for example, contain silver inside. While silver is great for filtering your water, it’s not great for growing plants.
Now you have nearly all the resources you need to recycle your used refrigerator water filters. Remember that everything is recyclable even if your local recycling center doesn’t accept it. The only thing that limits you is your own imagination, so get creative while you help the environment.
Interested in knowing more about or purchasing refrigerator water filters? Just visit gpfilter.com. The shopping site sells NSF International-certified and best-priced filters compatible with nearly all refrigerator brands. Most importantly, they are very environmentally-friendly, causing little harm to our surroundings. Many thanks for doing your part to save our planet!
The knowledge before purchasing the water filter is at the end of this article.
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