Introductory Comments for RecycleBank

Introduced by Christine Knapp (PennFuture)

Of all the actions an individual can take to reduce their impact on the environment, recycling is the most popular way for people to make a difference. For decades now, residents have learned that recycling reduces the air and water pollution created by burning and burying our trash, conserves our natural resources and saves energy. With rising landfill disposal costs and other economic factors, recycling is now also significantly cheaper than regular trash removal.

 In 1987, the City of Philadelphia was the first in the nation to set up a mandatory recycling program. Yet since that time, Philadelphia has never succeeded at recycling more than 7% of its trash, even while peer cities are recycling at 20, 30 and even 40%. Recycling advocates, myself included, have advocated for simple changes, such as providing weekly recycling, adding materials like plastics and cardboard, and doing proper education, as ways to increase the recycling rate. However, two Philadelphia area entrepreneurs came up with a new concept- one that may just revolutionize recycling as we know it.

Their concept was to give people credits for recycling, to bank those credits, and to let people redeem them in the form of coupons with stores in their communities. In a pilot project they have been running in two Philadelphia neighborhoods for the past few years, residents are provided with a large container with a bar code on it and collection trucks are retrofitted with a mechanical arm that can scan the barcode and weigh the container. The information is stored online, where participants can log on to see how much they’ve recycled, how much credit they have and to redeem their coupons.

Participation rates in both areas have jumped to 90%. Residents are earning up to $400 a year in coupons credits towards national stores like Starbucks, Acme and Home Depot, local stores like Sneaker Villa or the Chestnut Hill Cheese Shop, buying greening power for a local energy co-op or even donating their credits to a fund for nonprofits and community groups.