Green business is paying people to recycle
Los Angeles is starting an innovative new pilot program. About 15,000 homes will be eligible for the program. Their recycling bins will be tagged, and with every pickup the weight of the stuff they recycle will be recorded. Based on how much they recycle, each household will earn “points” that can de redeemed at businesses such as CVS, Bed Bath & Beyond, and El Pollo Loco, among others. Apparently, the total tally could reach the equivalent of $400 a year per household.
According to behavioral psychologists, people will do all kinds of things for a reward, even a small one. That key insight enabled RecycleBank to convince hundreds of thousands of households to recycle more of their trash in exchange for ReycleBank Points, which can be redeemed for discounts with hundreds of vendors, for everything from groceries to sporting goods. A chip embedded in a home’s recycling crate allows RecycleBank to track exactly how much each household contributes.
The system works so well that RecycleBank doubles to quintuples recycling rates, says CEO Ron Gonen, who founded the startup in 2004 in New York City. Philadelphia served as a pilot city, and today the company operates in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Vermont, and Massachusetts. By 2013, Gonen plans to have RecycleBank in 10 million households across the United States, Canada, and Europe.
The company doesn’t only benefit consumers, but municipalities, as well. It’s becoming increasingly expensive for cities to dump our trash in landfills. Every pound of waste RecycleBank diverts from the landfill saves local governments a few cents—and the company takes a cut.It has also succeeded in getting past the tendency of green projects to remain a hobby for those who can afford it: The program has been as successful in low-income neighborhoods as affluent ones. “People in low-income neighborhoods don’t have the [same] opportunity to participate in the environmental space,” notes Gonen, “but we’ve given them something that’s tangible and impactful.”
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