Recycling is a lot like working out—you know you should do it, but at the end of a long Monday when the dirty dishes are piled up in the sink and the couch never looked so inviting, if often gets pushed back to Tuesday, or Wednesday, or… never. Ron Gonen knows a lot about that lack of motivation. That’s why in 2004 he co-founded RecycleBank, a program that makes recycling worth your while.

The concept behind RecycleBank is simple: because economic incentives motivate recycling more effectively than green principles, reward people for recycling and watch the rates soar. The RecycleBank system is quick and painless: each customer on the garbage route gets a bin fitted with a computer chip. When garbage trucks pick up the bins, they weigh the bins and scan the cards, keeping track of how much each family is recycling. For every pound of material recycled, participants earn 2.5 RecycleBank points (up to about 400 points per month), which can then be cashed in at retailers like Bed, Bath and Beyond, CVS Pharmacy, and Petco.

The program has worked so well that it’s swelled from one small operation in Philly to a system cities across the nation are adopting. It may even go international. Recently, Plenty talked with Ron about putting a price on the environment, hammering out kinks in recycling kiosks, and how to get RecycleBank into your community.

Everybody knows they should recycle, but often don’t. What is it about RecycleBank’s system that gets people off the couch and over to their recycling bins?

What ultimately works about RecycleBank is that we provide motivation for recycling by rewarding people with RecycleBank reward points that they can redeem at retailers across the country. People are starting to realize that throwing waste in garbage isn’t free; it’s going to cost you money because the government is using your tax dollars to pay to put your waste in a landfill. But if you recycle your waste with RecycleBank, we’re able to pass some of the value of recycling back to the homeowner. Right now we reward people with about $400 per month in points, which is worth of a lot for a lot of families. This program helps to make sure people understand there’s a value in being environmentally conscious.

And the technology makes it easy for cities to use, right?

RecycleBank introduced a technology that enables us to track how much individual families are recycling with its Radio Frequency Identification chips. Each week, when your recycling is collected, these “smart carts” complete with a chip are scanned and weighed right at your curb. The system records the weight, converts it to points, and credits that amount directly to your account. Through the availability of the technology and the idea of rewarding people, we were able to get cities interested in Recyclebank.

What about the companies that participate in the program? What’s in it for them?

Participating in this program provides a great opportunity for businesses to get their brand out in front of many thousands of households and let people know that they care about the environment. It’s a great advertising opportunity, and since we don’t charge for advertising, the only thing that we ask is that in return the businesses must honor the RecycleBank points. Right now we have approximately 400 reward partners, everyone from national businesses like Kraft and Coca-Cola to a host of regional and local businesses.

Have any communities had trouble incorporating RecycleBank’s system?

Posted on Jul 28, 2008 at 8:13 AM
Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)