No, the Filter From Your Air Purifier Can’t Be Recycled
All that gunk you’re not breathing in has to go somewhere—and it’s likely heading to a landfill.
Children in Rybnik, Poland play near the air purifier in their bedroom.
Photographer: Omar Marques/Getty Images
Even before the pandemic, air purifiers were among the most sought-after household appliances. Once governments acknowledged in mid-2020 that the coronavirus could remain in the air for hours, manufacturers struggled to meet demand. As other factories laid off staff, air-purifier maker RGF Environmental Group in Florida more than tripled its workforce, from 140 to 500 people. In Indonesia, sales of Sharp Corp.’s “plasmacluster” purifiers jumped, from about 3,000 units a month pre-virus to almost 13,000 by January 2021.
To be effective against high levels of pollution, purifiers need to run almost constantly, sucking up energy resources as well as debris. And their filters need replacing every few months. Those components—typically a mix of natural and synthetic fibers with some plastic and metal and other coatings—almost always wind up in a landfill. QualityAirFilters.com explains on its website that though an air purifier “may appear recyclable, all of those particles that it has collected while in use make it unsafe to recycle.” All those pollutants end up in the landfill, too.