Going green has gotten a lot more enticing to consumers in communities served by Philadelphia-based RecycleBank. Households can earn RecycleBank Dollars, redeemable for discount coupons at select retailers, just for putting their recyclables out to be collected. But the incentives don't stop there. It's also great promotion and community recognition for participating businesses. Sound too good to be true? Well, you may be surprised to learn that it's even more cost-effective than most traditional recycling programs.
How does it work? RecycleBank containers are embedded with identifying barcodes, and households can throw all of their recyclable waste into one bin (single stream recycling system, also known as making it easy for customers to be green). Collection trucks scan and weigh the containers to track how much each household is recycling. The more customers recycle, the more they earn in RecycleBank dollars—up to 35 USD per month. Customers can track their points online and redeem points for coupons that can be used toward purchases at major chains such as Whole Foods, RiteAid and Starbucks, as well as local companies that choose to be part of the program. More than 250 businesses currently participate.
While many recycling programs have proven to be more expensive to run than they monetarily are worth, RecycleBank wins by driving higher utilization of trucks and manpower. The cost of running the program is far exceeded by the money saved in landfill fees: RecycleBank charges municipalities USD 24-30 a household, and guarantees clients they will save at least that amount in disposal fees as waste is diverted from landfills and incinerators. Meanwhile, residents are racing to fill their bins with recyclable paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, tin and aluminium: in test neighbourhoods, the amount recycled per household went from an average of 5 lbs to 35 lbs per week. Demonstrating that it pays to reward good behaviour. RecycleBank's reach is currently limited to West Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware, but it's generating some great buzz and could easily be expanded to other areas. For another example of incentive-driven recycling, check out our earlier coverage of reverse vending machines.
Website: www.recyclebank.com
Contact: gonen@recyclebank.com
Spotted by: Bob Staub
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Recycling is in a mess in the UK at the moment. There is every need to prevent waste going to landfill sites but local authorities seem unable to organise cost effect waste collections. Personally I recyle everything only to get notes left that ' I have left the wrong type of plastic' in my bin. Thin cardboard is not collected - only newspapers etc etc. Its time to attack the supermarkets for the cronic overuse of packaging.
Thank you for posting us on springwise.com. The excitement and demand for our services has been wonderful and we are very appreciative! Please feel free to contact your city council representative if you would like RecycleBank to come to your city.
To the gentleman above from South Philly, we have been negotiating with Philadelphia to expand are doing all we can to get to your neighborhood soon.
The idea sounds so very compelling but when I try to figure out the economics of the business it does not add up.
For every household RecycleBank receives some $20-30 and has to generate $400 support from participating stores to cover the annual cost. For 1 million households Recycle Bank gets $20mil in revenue and has to generate $400mil in stores support!
How does this make any sense? Either I miss something critical (probably some revenues from recycling companies) or i am completely clueless about the size of participating stores marketing budgets.
its about time that everyone should take responsibility to our own waste . for every waste we generate we contribute to the damage of our environment its just so sad that we have to put up incentive schemes just to get people to do their part where in fact we should all be doin this naturally.
more power to recycle bank !
"could easily be expanded to other areas"
But it hasn't. The company seems rather complacent about expanding service to my neighborhood, South Philly. They also don't return emails. And, the city really needs a better recycling service. The trucks that pick up my recycling have stickers that say "We recycle, and we do it right" but the truck only picks up glass, metal, and paper; no batteries, no cardboard, no plastic at all. My home town in Somerset County, NJ did all of this and even gave out bags to fill with textiles and a free bucket.
All of Philadelphia's recycling services needs some major change. But I'll be holding my breath for this one
Christopher Thompson | March 14, 2007 9:34 PM