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.

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!

FridgeFilters Reviews from Real Customers: "Keeping it Easy"

Thanks so much for all the great comments again this week! Today's feedback comes from Sally from Silver Springs NV, Francis from St. Louis MO, and Elizabeth from Thornton CO.

Easy to find the right part...

"Fridgefilters hosts a web site that is extremely easy to navigate. As part of their excellent customer service, they send you email reminders to reorder, the frequency of which you determine yourself. Their prices are extremely competitive, and their shipping options are many. I highly recommend Fridgefilters for all of your home filter needs." - Francis R.

Easy to order...

"I am very happy with the quality of the merchandise and extremely happy with the ease in which it was ordered and sent to me. I plan to keep ordering as long as they have the product I am looking for. I would certainly reccomend it to anyone looking for a good value and quick service." - Sally M.

Easy to re-purchase...

"FridgeFilters has been great to work with. We had one issue with the product one of the times we ordered and they sent us out a replacement within 24 hours. They have exceptional customer service! Their email reminders make it very easy to re-purchase as well!" - Elizabeth K.

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 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.

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.

Is my Fridge "Made in the USA" or China?

Outsourced. It's a term you've heard used more and more often over the last few years. Many companies have relocated manufacturing and customer service positions overseas, presumably to cut down on labor costs. At a time when unemployment rates are high many Americans are finding it hard to get a job making a decent wage. In an effort to counter the trend of outsourcing consumers are voting with their wallets and buying American made goods instead of foreign products as often as possible. This Consumer Report goes into detail about which appliances are still made in the U.S. and which companies have moved manufacturing operations overseas.

I wanted to share this article with you because it brings up a very important point about manufacturing. With Americans choosing to buy American Made some crafty corporations have created a new label, "Assembled in the USA" for their products. The parts are manufactured overseas and shipped here to be assembled. This is a mixed bag of results because on the one hand some jobs are remaining here, but others are still being outsourced. In the world of appliances companies such as Whirlpool (who owns the brands Maytag/Amana, KitchenAid, and Jenn-Air) manufacture their refrigerators, dishwashers, etc in the United States, but the replacement parts are made all over the world.

This means that when you buy a Whirlpool refrigerator you may see that it has been proudly "Made in the USA", which is true. Many Whirlpool models are made in Ohio, but the replacement parts that you purchase for it may come from outside of the country. If you order a Whirlpool replacement water filter for your fridge you could get a part that was manufactured in Mexico or Taiwan. A Maytag refrigerator on the other hand could be made in the USA and have a water filter which is also made in the USA, like the UKF8001. Here is a list of the major brands and where their refrigerator filters are manufactured.

There is some good news on the horizon. While it will probably take some time to sort out the current unemployment issues and bring enough jobs back to the U.S. the process is already underway. According to this article from Area Development on reshoring, "American business executives are reconsidering their overseas operations and realizing that outsourcing may not be the best option." The article discusses "reshoring", which is the business equivalent of undoing the damage that outsourcing had on manufacturing jobs by bringing them back to Americans. CEO's and business execs once thought of outsourcing as a cheaper way to compete with other companies, but now higher shipping and transportation costs combined with tax breaks and incentives are luring some manufacturers back to the U.S.

Green friendly water bottles

Want to save money? Want to help the planet out? Try one of these green-friendly bottles recommended by Time.com. Single use PET plastic bottles are not the best way to get your water. For one thing, you would not want to refill a PET plastic bottle to reuse it as a drinking bottle because over time the stress placed on the bottle makes it more likely to leach harmful chemicals (like endocrine disruptors) into your water. So not only are these chemicals endocrine disruptors (that means bad for your body's natural hormone production), but they also add a bad taste to the water.

If that did not convince you to put down that Aquafina, Dasani, or Fiji water check this out. At around $1.50 or more per bottle and drinking at least 1 bottle a day you will spend around $500 - $600 on bottle water in a year. Of course you could just get a handy re-usable bottle like one of the ones from the Time.com article and save yourself a lot of cash. You will also be helping to cut down on energy use, plastic pollution, and keeping our planet green.

Of course, we have a favorite green-friendly bottle at FridgeFilters and while all the ones on the Time list sound great, I would personally go with a stainless steel Klean Kanteen bottle. There are a lot of stainless steel bottles on the market now, but the Klean Kanteen is still the best because they are responsibly manufactured by an American company using 100% BPA free materials and food grade stainless steel. If you are looking for more options they also have a line of stylish stainless steel bottles that come in cool colors like Eclipse Black, Indicator Red, or Be Green. These great bottles also come in different sizes, styles and have a variety of cap options. Because they are made of stainless steel the Klean Kanteens are extremely durable and easy to clean too!