BRITA recycling programme for water filters

Whether as packaging for our food, in our kitchen appliances or in our cars: it's impossible to imagine our everyday life without plastic. After all, plastic is very practical as it weighs little and is easy to shape. At BRITA, we also work with plastics, whether in our household water filter cartridges or in our Professional Filters of our business partners.

In addition to plastic, we work with other valuable materials for the best water filter experience. That's why we started recycling our filter back in 1992. In this way, we conserve resources and protect the environment at the same time.

The BRITA recycling programme - est. 1992

"Why should we leave the recycling of our water filter to others when we can do it ourselves together with our partners?" That's what BRITA founder Heinz Hankammer asked when he launched the recycling programme for BRITA water filter cartridges in 1992. At that time, this was genuinely pioneering work!

No sooner said than done: since then, water filter cartridges brought to BRITA headquarters in Germany have been separated in the company's own facility and processed for recycling. We also regenerate the filter material ourselves and use it again in new filter water filter cartridges – truly closing the material loop.

Learn how our in-house recycling programme works using the most important components of BRITA water filter cartridges.

Plastic casing

The plastic casing is first shredded on site and then collected by partner companies. They clean and separate the plastic and grind it into granules. The plastics industry can then use this to produce new plastic parts.

Activated carbon

The activated carbon is returned to activated carbon suppliers. They reprocess it and use it again for various filter processes, for example, in wastewater treatment.

Ion exchanger

In our own plant, the ion exchanger is regenerated and added to new filter cartridges. This means that new BRITA filter cartridges can contain regenerated ion exchangers – with the same quality and performance. That is truly sustainable!

BRITA water filter cartridge recycling in 75 seconds

Would you like to know how recycling works for your BRITA water filter cartridge? Our video shows how it works using the MAXTRA cartridge as an example.

Very clever and fantastic for the environment: thanks to the BRITA recycling programme, almost all components of the BRITA water filter cartridges can be recycled and returned to the material cycle.

Recycling of BRITA water filter cartridges worldwide

The BRITA recycling programme has become established in many European countries such as Germany, England, France, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands. In cooperation with many trade partners, BRITA water filter cartridges are collected and brought to our headquarters in Germany. In Asia water filter cartridges are not transported to Germany. Instead we work with partner companies to enable filter recycling locally.