Activated charcoal/carbon & exhausted Britta water filters. DIY uses anyone ??

[clonet]

Has anyone found anything interesting to do with the content of exhausted Britta water filter cartridges.

We are in a very hard water area and get through one of these quite quickly. I then throw them away.

Have been thinking of this for a few months wondering what DIY use the exhausted activated carbon may have but tonight looked at the Wikipedia entry for activated carbon.

It's amazing stuff. A very interesting read.

Who would have thought that just 1 gram ( 28 grames in an ounce ) of the stuff could have an internal surface area so very large. Sounds impossible.

And each exhausted Britta cartridge will have many grames of contaminated activated carbon.

I see it ( the raw activated carbon ) can be recycled but not with ease by an amateur. And even then if I could I would not use it for my drinking water.

Thoughts anyone ???

[geoff]

In message , clonet writes

You could always make a helium adsorption pump

[chris French]

In message , clonet writes

If you life near enough to a store that has a recyling bin for them, they can be recycled. Seems to be mostly tesco and argos.

[Andrew Gabriel]

You should be able to reactivate the water softener by washing through with sodium hydroxide (being anionic resin softeners) and rinse thoroughly. You could then use it for non-potable softened water, such as steam iron or house plants which can't take hard water. I've never tried this though.

I have a pile of used ones, but even in a quite hard water area and using them much longer than a month (usually 6 months), they haven't run out of water softening capability. The risk is that the bactericide (silver) wears out, and combined with debris the unit has filtered, it becomes a bacteria breeding ground. I only use them for water which is being boiled which will kill any bacteria, but not necessarily any of their resulting toxins, so indefinite use is still not advisable.

[Andy Dingley]

Mostly it's re-using the cases with new fills.

Activated charcoal is very cheap, in bulk quantities.

[John Stumbles]

Dry them out and burn them on the barbie?

(Just the charcoal bit unless you're into check baseball caps and bling ;-))

[Tabby]

Kids can have fun making carbon mics. Or if older, carbon arcs.

NT