Banking on Recycling
April 17, 2008
Posted by CindyC in : Communities , trackback
As I was taking out my curbside recycling this week, I noticed that not all my neighbors have their recycling boxes out. That got me wondering about recycling rates and habits, so I did a quick search on this question.
I couldn’t find any definitive answer on the percentage of people who recycle as it seems to vary from state to state. However, according to the EPA, recycling rate of household trash, or municipal solid waste (MSW), has doubled since 1990, from 16% to 32%. Much of this increase is attributed to widespread curbside recycling programs and composting.
Well, the optimist in me was happy to this increased rate but the critic in me wondered why don’t more people do it? More important, how can we encourage people to recycle more?
Then I came across an article about RecycleBank, a company that gives monetary incentive to increase recycling. The idea is really quite simple. Participating household receives a (free) recycling container with an electronic tracking system. On recycling/garbage day, trucks equipped with special computers weigh the recycled materials, scans the bin tracker and electronically credits the household account with “points”. These recycle points can then be redeemed at local retail partners like CVS, Target or even Starbucks. Each household can also track the amount of recyclables they help divert from landfills. In 2004, RecycleBank launched operations in Philadelphia and noted a dramatic rise in recycle rates – from 7% to 90%! In addition to the monetary reward (averaging $8 per week per household), RecycleBank founder also believes measurable results encourage better behavior.
Since then, RecycleBank has expanded to many cities in the Northeast as well as pilot college programs. Because RecycleBank makes money by collecting a percentage of landfill fees saved by its program, it can continue to offer free bins to households and help cities achieve their waste reduction goals. Unfortunately, operations are still mostly focused on the Northeast but I hope it will soon consider expanding to the West Coast and my neighborhood.
CindyC at Organicpicks
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Comments»
I think this would work well in cities that have municipally run trash hauling, but most cities in the Midwest use multiple liscenced private haulers. It seems like that would complicate implementing this incentive plan. The other thing that influences the percentage of households recycling arund here is that the very small towns don’t have curbside recycling yet. In fact, many rural people still have burn baskets on thier property, and don’t even contract with a hauler, because rural pick up is very expensive. Even with those hurdles, I know farm families that faithfully lug bags of recyclables into our town to drop them at the municipal drop site. What a nuisance! But, it shows that we are a long way from making this habit possible for everyone.
That is really interesting, Cindy. I’d love to see that come here to the Bay Area.
Joyce, you raise a good point. It is wonderful to hear about those people who make such an effort and also frustrating to hear about places where there is no curbside pick up.
Unfortunately, having curbside pick up does not necessarily solve the problem. I was told last week that my city is only about 50% recycling WITH curbside pick up. I’ll say that one neighbor never recycles anything - even though they have a youngish family of 6. Another older neighbor recycles bottles and cans and newspaper but no mixed paper even though that is an option here. How to motivate is a good question.
This is interesting as it’s a little like the bagel thing Cindy W talked about a few days ago. If I recall correctly, Elizabeth Royte discusses this in “Garbage Land,” and she brings up San Francisco as an example. San Francisco will let you recycle for free, but you have to pay for your garbage. By doing this, they have drastically reduced garbage and increased recycling because there’s an economic disincentive to not recycling.
Green Bean, do you mean 50% of household waste is diverted from the landfill, or do you mean that only 50% of the people who could recycle are actually doing it?
arduous, our hauler is one that only charges for the garbage, and picks up the recycling for free. But most don’t operate that way here. You’re are right-it makes us really pay attention to keeping our waste volume low.
My parents lived in Houston until a couple of years ago. It is the 4th largest city in the US. There was not and is not any curb-side recycling at all. I strongly suspect neither does Dallas, Fortworth, or San Antonio. Austin seems to be the only city in the big ‘ole Texas that has a curb-side recycling program. Urgh. Even though we can do better in the Bay Area, we are 50% ahead of many other areas.
Here in Oregon we have a “comingled” recycling program. Everybody gets an 80 gallon can for their recyclables - everything goes in except glass & oil - and then whatever size can they want to pay for for garbage. It’s so easy to recycle that the rate skyrocketed after the program took effect. The downside is that the material to be recycled is not as pure a product and has limitations on how it can be used. We have a 20-gallon can for our weekly garbage, but only because we still use diapers (sigh). Otherwise, we could probably go to the 20 gallon pickup once/month and save even more money.