Rewarding Recycling

An even bigger convenience factor, says Robert Reider, a longtime recycler who lives in the pilot neighborhood, is that he can put all his recyclables into one bin. Paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, tin and aluminum go together in the blue bins, which are picked up by retrofitted trucks and transported to a single-stream receiving facility. All the items are separated there, reducing complexity and relieving anxiety for anyone who is unsure of what goes where and what’s allowed.

Single-stream is a growing, but not yet common, concept in the recycling industry. Opponents claim the quality of the material decreases when it’s mixed with other objects, but proponents argue that the single-stream sorting system is more meticulous so the final product is in fact better.

Joe Abate, chairman of the Environmental Commission of Clayton, the first municipality in New Jersey to adopt RecycleBank, brought a single-stream system to his borough a few months before implementing RecycleBank. Just by switching to single-stream, he says, the recycling rates went up 20 percent and then another 65 percent with RecycleBank.

The idea behind the company, though, is that convenience by itself is not enough. Here is where their award-winning innovation comes in. “People really need to be prodded,” says Abate. “The way you prod people is with money or something of value.” That extra encouragement, though, is with a carrot and not a stick, which is why Abate was interested in RecycleBank when he was looking for a way to boost Clayton’s recycling rates.

Mayor Platt of Cherry Hill also believes in the carrot method. “I would not want to tax anybody or fine anybody,” he says. “I think they should be using their own judgment to realize what this will do for the future of our environment.”

Besides the environment, though, there are three groups of beneficiaries RecycleBank aims to involve. The residents get rewarded with 2.5 RecycleBank Reward Points for every pound of recycling material in their bins. The retrofitted trucks weigh each bin at pick-up and scan a barcode on it to credit the household’s account for the amount they recycle.

Participants can log on to the company’s website to see how many Reward Points they’ve earned and how many trees and gallons of oil they’ve saved. Also, they can access a list of hundreds of local and national reward partners—from small restaurants and shops to chains like Dunkin’ Donuts and IKEA. RecycleBank points are traded for coupons like $5 off a $15 purchase at CVS pharmacy or $10 off a $50 ShopRite grocery trip. A household can earn up to $35 per month and $400 per year or choose to give some of its earnings to charity.

Businesses pay nothing to participate. As residents redeem points, business owners benefit from increased patronage and an environmentally friendly image. Elias Bitar, owner of Norma’s, a Mediterranean restaurant in Cherry Hill, says he signed up for RecycleBank without hesitation because the creative approach for engaging people caught his attention. While he has not seen many of the coupons yet, he expects that after the program expands, the rewards will bring more people in. By including local businesses like Norma’s and Blossoms, a family-run flower shop, the program puts money back into the community that is generating the recyclables.

The township also expects to benefit. Although the RecycleBank program costs $350,000 a year, Mayor Platt estimates that $500,000 will be saved by avoiding tipping fees. The township pays these fees, $65 to $70 per ton, for trash sent to landfills or incinerators. A law signed by state lawmakers in January made trash even less desirable by adding a $3 per ton tax that will fund recycling initiatives. The materials also increase revenue because once the paper, for example, is processed at the plant and sold back into the market, the township gets paid for providing it.

“Every single person benefits,” says Pomerantz of RecycleBank.