RecycleBank was co-founded in 2004 by Ron Gonen, with the belief that environmental solutions create economic opportunities. Today, RecycleBank motivates people to become greener citizens and smarter consumers by rewarding them for recycling at home. RecycleBank does this by quickly and easily measuring the amount of material each home recycles and then converts that activity into RecycleBank Reward Points that can be used at over 950 local and national retail partners.

Currently, RecycleBank is in hundreds of communities covering fifteen states, dramatically increasing recycling and revitalizing local communities all along the way.. In NJ, RecycleBank has a long history of servicing communities increasing household recycling rates. For the purposes of focus and this application, we will focus on Cherry Hill, NJ.

RecycleBank meets three distinct sustainability needs.

1. RecycleBank dramatically increases recycling rates among households within a given community, creating cleaner and greener communities

2. Saves municipalities’ money on rising landfill tip fees by eliminating large amounts of solid waste and adding it to the recycling stream, adding significantly to the sustainability of the city.

3. Promotes socially responsible business and helps to set an example in the community by offering rewards to local vendors, thus developing thriving local economies.

It is estimated that over 40% of RecycleBank Points are redeemed in the local economy. Every household gets a 96 gallon cart with an ID tag containing the account number and the household address. Trucks retrofitted with our technology capture the weight of all the recyclables picked up on that route and distribute RecycleBank Points to all the participants. Points are used at hundreds of local and national retailers, including Target.com, IKEA, ShopRite, Norma’s, Cherry Hill Pizza and Erlton Bikes

To make recycling easy, RecycleBank uses single-stream recycling--no more sorting or separating (paper, glass, cardboard, plastic, aluminum, etc.). The combination of providing citizens with an incentive to recycle plus the tools and ease of single-stream recycling has significantly raised recycling rates.

In Cherry Hill, we are seeing double+ the recycling rates plus 96% participation rate. In addition, the Mayor is estimated to be saving over $2 million dollars in the next five years. This savings is being used to implement further green initiatives of the township. With RecycleBank everybody wins: individual household, municipality and the local and national reward partner, and of course, the planet. The dramatic results seen as a result of these efforts allows towns and cities all over, including Cherry Hill, NJ, to receive grant monies for their recycling efforts and exceed state mandated requirements.

The key to remember about RecycleBank versus other recycling initiatives is that RecycleBank rewards its customers for recycling. Most cities struggle trying to find ideas and strategies to help raise its recycling rates to build a more sustainable city. RecycleBank has answers to those questions and delivers municipalities results with its market-driven and proven program. Participating in the RecycleBank program also boosts economic development within the participating city. The more a community like Cherry Hill recycles, the more each household earns and redeems. RecycleBank is certainly scalable and can be applied in any community, municipality or single subscription hauler.

RecycleBank is currently in over 200,000 homes across 15 states and has national and international plans, with the goal to dramatically increase household recycling rates everywhere. Having been deployed in over 200,000 households, with millions more in the pipeline, RecycleBank has replicated its proven program to work in a wide range of cities that differ in population, size by area and hauler participation. RecycleBank is easily to replicate because of its simple implementation and is proven to work with real, tangible and effective results. With a client retention rate of 95 percent, RecycleBank is proven to work in any community.

RecycleBank is a leader because they took the initiative to develop a program that does the following in Cherry Hill:

1.) Created an innovative new program that made it easy and simple to recycle by providing households with the tools that they need and then incenting people for their efforts

2.) Created a program that not only helps the environment but also helps to create more sustainable towns and cities.

With RecycleBank there is an incentive for the individual household, municipality and the local and national reward partner. The dramatic results seen as a result of these efforts Cherry Hill, NJ, to receive grant monies for their recycling efforts and exceed state mandated requirements. Cherry Hill has also been chosen to receive the Governor's Environmental Excellence Award for its Green Action Plan, passed by the Township Council in March...The town was honored for RecycleBank, an electronics-waste and plastic-bag recycling program, and for its no-idling campaign, solar-panel project and other initiatives that are funded by the savings RecycleBank generates.

Household

The more a household recycles the more rewards the household receives. An average household in the Cherry Hill program earns between $2-3 hundred dollars in reward value each year for recycling.

Municipality

The municipality saves money on landfill fees and becomes a more sustainable community. With that comes notoriety, a cleaner city and economic stimulation from local and national reward partners.

Local Reward Partner

Local Reward partners brand themselves as socially responsible, caring for the community and thus gain more business. The more households recycle, the more money they have to spend at local and national participating rewards partners.

"This program will save the township in the next four years about $2 million by not going to their landfill or to the incinerator, and that's big money today in what we're doing," says Mayor Bernie Platt. “Cherry Hill is working towards a sustainable society in order to improve our overall quality of life. We want to aggressively shrink our carbon footprint and our 10-point plan will move us towards that goal,” said Mayor Bernie Platt. “Thanks to RecycleBank, the Township can tangibly see not only the environmental value of our initiatives, but the economic value as well.” Please follow this link to see one of hundreds of stories done on RecycleBank and Cherry HIll. This was aired on CBS Early Show on 12/09/08. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMxYC8CwQk4 And here is a link to an article in USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2008-07-08-recycle_N.htm