FridgeFilters.com Blog

Charity Spotlight: Cary-Kildaire Rotary Club

By Megan Vick

 

In December, our Charity Spotlight was on the Rotary Foundation and Rotary International. In Cary, North Carolina, the Rotary Club of Cary-Kildaire collaborated with the Rotary Club of Mussoorie, India. These two clubs collaborated to provide sanitation and pure drinking water facilities to three schools in India. I was able to ask Scott Rossi a bit more about the completion of the project.

Fridge Filters:Scott, can you tell us more about the project and its completion?

Scott Rossi: The first phase of the ‘Purified Drinking Water System and Sanitary Facility Project’ undertaken by the clubs was dedicated to the students of MY Saraswati Shishu Vidya Mandir, Gandhi Niwas, Mussoorie on Monday, 27th June 2011. The second phase was dedicated to the students of Mussoorie Girls Inter College, Mussoorie on Thursday, 30th June 2011. The third phase was recently dedicated to the students of Sanatan Dharm Girls Inter College, Mussoorie on Friday, 4th November 2011.

FF: How did your club come to decide on doing such an ambitious project?

SR: Rotary has six areas of focus: peace and conflict prevention/resolution, disease prevention and treatment, water and sanitation, maternal and child health, basic education and literacy, and economic and community development. Our International Service Committee felt that well-planned water projects have the potential to address multiple areas of focus.

FF: What made the club choose India for the clean water project?

SR: Cary-Kildaire Rotary Club was part of three water projects last year. The first project was constructing soak pits or recharge wells in Kolkata City and surrounding rural areas, West Bengal, India. The second project was digging a bore hole well and constructing water storage tanks at a school in Our Lady of Lourdes School, Ozuoba, Rivers State, Nigeria. The third project was providing drinking and sanitation facilities at three schools in India. We chose these projects because of the needs that existed and because their were excellent Rotary partners at each location.

FF: How can other groups do something similar?

SR: They can search for water projects that need partners/sponsors on websites www.waterteaminternational.org or www.startwithwater.org (a website run by WASRAG, the Water and Sanitation Rotary Action Group).

FF: What was the best part about being involved in these projects?

SR: It is tremendously uplifting to be able to help people and to contribute to the alleviation of needless suffering.

Special thanks to Scott Rossi and Carl Ryden of the Cary-Kildaire Rotary Club for their information on this topic.

Check out the video for the Cary-Kildaire West Bengal water project!

Rotary Club West Bengal Project

Charity Spotlight: The Rotary Foundation & Rotary International

By Megan Vick

 

What is The Rotary Foundation?

Rotary began over 100 years ago in Illinois and now has approximately 1.2 million members in over 200 countries. Since its creation in 1917, The Rotary Foundation has grown into a global force for good, thanks to the generosity of Rotarians and friends of Rotary who share our vision for a better world. Rotary is a worldwide organization of more than 1.2 million business, professional, and community leaders. Members of Rotary clubs, known as Rotarians, provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world.

What do they do? How does it help?

The mission of the Rotary Foundation and Rotary International is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education and the alleviation of poverty. Rotary's main objective is service - in the community, in the workplace, and throughout the world.

The Rotary Foundation and Rotary International have many programs set up throughout the world. The programs are funded through grants; most notably the PolioPlus program. PolioPlus is a worldwide initiative to eradicate polio by providing vaccines to those who may not other be able to receive the vaccine. Rotary Foundation and Rotary International also help with eliminating fluoride from water in areas whose people are prone to fluorosis- a debilitating degenerative condition found in parts of India, Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Rotarians worldwide also help with Disaster Recovery efforts when an area is struck with a natural disaster.

Who does it help?

Rotarians help anyone and everyone. The Rotary Foundation has volunteers to help provide clean water, support education , eliminate hunger issues, and improve health and sanitation both in American and throughout the world. Rotarians are your friends, family, and neighbors who help friends, family, and neighbors.

How can I help?

 

Visit the site for information on volunteering your time.

You can also visit for ways to donate.

You might also see charitable donation collections all around your town in convenient stores, restaurants, and shops. Please feel free to donate anything you can.

Charity Spotlight: Habitat for Humanity

By Megan Vick

 

 

Fridge Filters Cares

What is Habitat for Humanity?

Habitat for Humanity (HFH) is an organization dedicated to providing safe, affordable, decent housing to families in need. Most Americans know of HFH as a volunteer organization. Maybe you’ve even volunteered through your school, your church, or your job! HFH has become an international household name sheltering over 2 million people across the globe.

What do they do? How does it help?

Simply put, Habitat for Humanity builds homes for people. Home ownership is a very important part of life for many. It creates personal wealth by dealing with equity, savings, and personal credit. In areas with safe and secure housing, schools and community groups will thrive. It’s a win-win for everyone. HFH also has ReStore. You can take your gently used furniture, home appliances, and home accessories to any ReStore where they will be sold to the public at a fraction of its price. ReStore is similar to a Salvation Army or Goodwill.

Who does it help?

Habitat for Humanity helps as many people as they can. HFH operates on nearly every continent and in dozens of countries. Over 1.5 billion (yes, with a “b”) people live in substandard housing and nearly 100 million are homeless worldwide. In the United States alone, approximately 95 million people live with housing issues.

Why we love Habitat for Humanity:

Fridge Filters loves Habitat for Humanity because they don’t take the easy way out. Sure, any organization can collect money and give it to those in need. HFH is different. HFH gets people like you and me, who want to make a difference, to go and help build homes for others. It’s not only something the family living in the house can be proud of; it’s something we can all be proud of. We also love HFH because they make it easy to donate to them. If you can’t donate your time, you can donate dollars, building materials, or water and air filters.

How can I help?

Nearly every region and/or county in the USA and Canada has a Habitat for Humanity branch or chapter. Please visit www.habitat.org for more information about monetary donations or to search your region for a volunteer chapter. Also, you can check out www.habitat.com/restores to see about donating different items to help others in your community.

Charity Spotlight: charity: water

By Megan Vick

What is charity: water? charity: water is a non-profit foundation committed to bringing underdeveloped nations a local source of freshwater. They believe in providing clean water to communities and villages, the water-borne illness and disease rate will diminish, increasing the quality of life of the people. charity: water also believes by providing a centralized freshwater source, adults and children do not have to spend many hours traveling long distances to collect dirty, unsafe water. This will help the villagers be able productive citizens and attend work and school.

What do they do? How does it help? charity: water doesn’t just go to a village and give them water. They partner with local organizations to determine the best way to help the community. Typically, a freshwater well in the middle of town will be created. This helps the people be actively engaged in the well-being of their village.

charity: water also is fundraising for a new drilling rig for their partners in Ethiopia. The new drilling rig can drill an additional 80 wells a year, and serve 40,000 more people with clean water in Ethiopia.

Who does it help? charity: water currently works in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Nepal, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Why we love charity: water: charity: water has passion! We’ve got passion! It’s a great combination. charity: water focuses on the positive outcomes of their work, not the negative circumstances of the people. They are also a great organization because you know where your money goes and you get proof with photos of the work and GPS coordinates of the area that was helped. Pretty cool stuff!

How can I help?

Visit the site to donate

You can choose to donate to a water project, or choose to donate to a drilling rig. Or both! Thanks for supporting by donating or reading!

Fridge Filters Gives Back

By Megan Vick

 

Fridge Filters Cares

Here at Fridge Filters, we believe everyone should have clean, good quality drinking water. Most of us reading this are lucky enough to have it. So what can we do about nearly one billion people on our planet who don’t have access to a source of clean drinking water?

We care! Fridge Filters will be sponsoring a Charity Spotlight to showcase the groups out there bringing clean water to those less fortunate. We will be donating to these charities. Will you?

At Fridge Filters, we have the best customers. Now, we want you to know why we are the best place to get your refrigerator water filters! Thanks for caring!

GE unleashes the URT system to recycle fridges

What's 40-feet tall and can devour 150,000 refrigerators a year? The new GE UNTHA Recycling Technology (URT) system. According to reports from GE The URT reduces landfill waste by 85% and allows them to recover around 95% of the insulating foam used in their fridges. The URT was designed as part of GE's participation in the EPA's Responsible Appliance Disposal program (RAD). Instead of throwing out those clunky old fridges and having them take up space in a landfill, GE is reusing the parts to make brand new appliances.

I love the idea that steps are being taken to recycle appliances, unfortunately the service is only available in a few states right now. I also think it would be really cool to see the URT system in action. While some components must be removed prior to the refrigerator being fed into the URT, it would still be a lot of fun to see an appliance broken down into bits and pieces in this machine.

FridgeFilters Kanteen Giveaway : One bottle at a time

The Klean Kanteen Reflect bottle is great! I love my Klean Kanteen and I know a lot of you are interested in getting one as well. We will continue to give away a free bottle with every 100 likes, but I thought I would let you know if you wanted to get your's today we are offering 50% off with the coupon code FBKANTEEN

To enter the drawing for a free Klean Kanteen Reflect 27-ounce bottle all you have to do is like our page at www.facebook.com/fridgefilters. We are giving away a Klean Kanteen to a randomly selected fan of our Facebook page every time we get 100 new “likes”.

Why are we giving away Klean Kanteens? We feel that throwing out all those single-use plastic bottles just doesn't make sense. Instead of using a plastic PET bottle you can save money by switching to a reusable bottle like the Klean Kanteen Reflect.

Together we can make a difference one bottle at a time!

The problem with the old way: Each year in the US alone we buy 29 billion single serve bottles of water and more than half of those bottles will not be recycled. To make things worse, plastic bottles can leach harmful chemicals into your drinking water.

A better future with the new way: A reusable bottle makes it easy to be safe and healthy while saving money and reducing plastic waste. The Klean Kanteen Reflect bottle is 100% plastic-free and comes with a stylish bamboo lid. Klean Kanteen products are made from food grade stainless steel and are 100% BPA-free. The Reflect Bottle is the perfect way to take clean filtered water with you everywhere you go.

FridgeFilters Reviews from Real Customers: "Consistently great customer service"

We really appreciate the extra time you take to tell us how we're doing and provide reviews on our service. Today's feedback comes from Sarah from San Francisco, CA; David from Aiken, SC. and Raymond from Florida. Thank you very much for the great feedback!

Great service...

"I have ordered many times from this vendor and they are consistently excellent. Great service on the phone, too, if you have to call them." - Sarah L.

Great prices...

"Great prices, easy purchase process, and they don't soak you on shipping. Order was at my house in just a couple of days! Great folks to deal with...thanks!" - David J.

Prompt delivery...

"After looking for these filters in my local stores and unable to find them, I went on line and found just what I was looking for. No hassle, no fuss. Decided to go for 3 filters at a time. Was pleased with ease of ordering, promptness of delivery and of course the exact product I was wanting. Thanks." - Raymond R.

Fan Feedback: How can we improve our filter reminders?

We currently use two types of filter reminders to help you remember to change and order your filters on time. What can we do to make our reminder notifications even better? We need your feedback!

• Do you stick the magnet to your refrigerator as a reminder?
• Is the magnet noticeable?
• What change would make the magnet work better as a reminder?

• Do you get our filter change reminder emails?
• Do you use the emails to order your filters?
• What change would make the email reminders even better?

You can post your feedback in the comments below, or on our Facebook page. We would love to hear from you!

Independent Investigation of Bottled Water finds unsavory results

I came across this article from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) where they tested 10 major brands of bottled water and found common chemical pollutants present in some samples. The report claims that bottled water from the Walmart brand (Sam's Choice) and Giant Foods' Acadia brand contained trihalomethanes, a disinfectant byproduct, in levels that exceed California standards for safe drinking water. The bottles tested came from manufacturing plants from several states, but some states tested far better than others. So what does it all mean?

First, you should know that the state of California has stricter standards for public drinking water than the rest of the country. This means that a chemical can violate the legal limit for a contaminant in the state of California and still be legal in another state. California also enforces stricter standards than the FDA when it comes to bottled water, which says more about the lack of action from the FDA than it does the state of California. Water that is bottled outside of California doesn't have to meet the state's safety standards to be sold there. Though, personally, when it comes to drinking water I want the best water quality possible.

According to the EWG study Walmart representatives acknowledged that Las Vegas tap water was the source for some of their bottled water. This easily explains how disinfection byproducts, like trihalomethanes, were found in their bottled water. Trihalomethanes are the result of a naturally occurring chemical reaction between chlorine and waterborne contaminants, so it isn't unusual to find the contaminant in tap water that is disinfected with chlorine. Of course, the marketing of bottled water products leads you to believe that the water is more than just ordinary tap water.

If you look at the label on bottled water you will usually see a lot of 0's. 0 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fat, etc. The bottled water industry uses this tactic to make you think their drinking water is more "pure" and safer than tap water. Trihalomethanes are not safe to drink and at higher concentrations have been linked to cancer and birth defects. Not all bottled water is created equal. The EWG believes that the FDA needs to crack down on the misleading labeling and marketing of bottled water as a safer way to drink water. As the article points out "Consumers could have obtained much better drinking water simply by installing a home tap water filter at a fraction of the bottled water cost."

At the end of the day the message is to make sure you know what's in your water. Take control of your drinking water quality and consider filtering and bottling your own water (preferably in a reusable bottle). At least this way you can be sure exactly what you are putting in your body when you take that first refreshing sip of water.