Brita Recycling

The impact we have on the environment is important to both Robert Dyas and BRITA. We therefore teamed up with BRITA in 2008 and supported them with the launch of their in-store recycling campaign. Recycling bins were placed in all of our stores across the country, meaning consumers could return their used water filter cartridges when shopping for new ones.

Since 2010, Robert Dyas customers have helped recycle over 830,000 used water filter cartridges. To do your bit for the environment and to find your nearest BRITA recycling point, click here. 

A BRITA cartridge is made up of three materials: The plastic body and the filtering material, which consists of activated carbon and ion exchangers. The plastic material is pre-cleaned and then ground. The resulting plastic granulate is supplied to the plastics industry for renewed processing for various purposes. The activated carbon and ion exchangers are carefully separated. The activated carbon is returned to the manufacturer where it is reactivated in special installations and made available for other uses such as waste water treatment.

The ion exchangers are subjected to a chemical and thermal 100% recycling and purification process at our own plant. At the end of this process, the ion exchange resin fulfils all the quality demands that are expected in functional and hygienic terms of new, freshly produced ion exchanger resin. The ion exchange resin is then reused for the production of household water filters.

You may be wondering about the transport costs. In fact, we use the same logistics chain that keeps the stores stocked with BRITA cartridges. So no additional fuel is burnt to bring back used cartridges. In fact, by avoiding empty hauls, we improve the CO2 performance per cartridge.

As for the recycling process itself, it requires considerably less energy than the transformation of crude oil into plastic. In any event, it’s better than using the costly material only once and then dumping it into landfills.