I know that some of you are not thrilled with the notion of taking the Brita FilterforGood Pledge, because you’re not thrilled with the fact that you can’t recycle Brita filters. I know this because you’ve posted comments and sent me private emails. I hear you.

So I took the question to the Brita folks. Here’s what they told me:

“Brita is exploring recycling options and hopes to announce a solution for the filters very soon. While we know this is not an ideal situation, one Brita filter effectively replaces more than 300 plastic water bottles from ending up in landfills and I think we can all agree that is a better thing. We agree that recycling of the filters is a vital step – it’s just that these things sometimes move slowly and are sometimes out of our immediate control. Brita is committed to a solution in the near term. Once we get the details worked out, we’d love to work with you to help us spread the word.”

I’m hoping I’ll have news in the near future about a recycling program for the filters. In the meantime, I think the point about the filters effectively replacing more than 300 single water bottles is worth noting.

I realize not everyone will agree with me on this, but I just wanted to post this additional information.

As you know, I recently gave Brita filters my Suddenly Frugal Seal of Approval. Well, the Brita folks got wind of it and reached out to me, to see if The Lean Green Family’s readers might want to take part in the FilterforGood Pledge.

Basically, you’re pledging not to drink bottled water (commercially bottled water that is). Instead, you’ll bring your own in a refillable bottle. Of course, there is a benefit for a company like Brita to promote this pledge–Brita just happens to make water filters to encourage people to drink more water from home. Truthfully, though, drinking tap water is one of the easiest things you can do to minimize your carbon footprint and your expenses, too.

I mean, before we made the switch to “making our own water,” we probably went through at least four bottles of water a day–those 16.9 ounce bottles. I had one, my husband took one to work, and I packed one in each of my daughters’ lunches. If someone had sports after school, we could easily go through another two or more bottles that day. So at our maximum consumption, we were tossing 2,190 bottles each year into our recycling bin.

As you may well know, only 20 percent or two out of 10 plastic water bottles make it to a recycling the plant. The other 80 percent? Yeah, they get added to landfills.

I know that we’re not the only people who made the switch from bottled water. If you watch “The Biggest Loser” on NBC, you’ve probably seen the contestants walking around with their refillable water bottles. Not surprisingly, Brita is one of the show’s sponsors. According to its press material, when Brita partnered with “The Biggest Loser” last season, “[it] led to the show saving more than 32,000 disposable water bottles from being used on the campus.”

During this season of “The Biggest Loser,” Brita wants to reach more people than just those vying to become the biggest loser, which is where the contest on this blog comes in. They’ve issued a blogger challenge to encourage readers to take the FilterForGood pledge.

The three bloggers who can get the most readers to take the pledge at the filterforgood.com website by the end of Season 6 (December 16, 2008) will be rewarded with a “The Biggest Loser” and FilterForGood gift pack with exclusive prizes from the show.

Here’s what you have to do to take the pledge and enter this blog. (Sorry but it requires filling out two forms. They go fast. Promise. I just did them myself.)

1. Log onto filterforgood.com (see the box below to click over to the website)

2. Click on the tab at the top of the page that says “Pledge” or scroll down on the home page to the section that says “Go Green, Save Green” and click on the “pledge/coupon” link.

3. Fill in the pledge form

4. In the comments section, please plug in this blog’s URL. It is http://suddenlyfrugal.blogspot.com Remember: even though it’s called The Lean Green Family, originally it was Suddenly Frugal; I never transferred the URL.

At some point the website might ask you to register. If you do take this extra step, there will be a question on the registration page about where you found out about the FilterforGood Pledge. Click “blog” and then type in the URL http://suddenlyfrugal.blogspot.com again.

After the final episode of the show, Brita will count all the pledges and announce the winners. Before then, though, they promised to send me some prize packs to give out to some of my readers. (I don’t know what’s in the prize packs; as soon as I find out, I’ll post information.)

So if you make the pledge, be sure to post a comment right here, too with your email address in case you win. (Spell it out–jane dot doe at gmail dot com or something such so spam bots can’t harvest it.)