RecycleBank grew in 2008

RecycleBank announced significant growth figures for 2008, expanding service from 35 municipalities and 100,000 homes in 2007 to over 90 municipalities and 210,000 households. RecycleBank expects over 100 percent growth in 2009.

“With the current downturn in the economy RecycleBank offers cities and families alike the opportunity to save money,” says Ron Gonen, CEO and co-founder of RecycleBank. “By revolutionizing the way people view recycling, and ultimately consumption, we are able to put an annual average of $300 to $400 dollars of reward value in people’s pockets.”

RecycleBank has more than doubled recycling rates in every community that deploys the program. To date, RecycleBank households have diverted over 60 million pounds of recyclables from the waste stream. These environmental footprint metrics resulted in over $6 million in savings for municipalities in 2008.

RecycleBank motivates households and communities to recycle by rewarding them for the amount they’ve recycled at home. RecycleBank measures the amount of materials and then converts it into RecycleBank points that can be used at over 1,200 national and local RecycleBank reward partners, including brand giants like Kraft, Coca-Cola, CVS/pharmacy and Target.com, as well as local reward partner locations like grocery stores and restaurants. RecycleBank members also have the ability to donate their RecycleBank points to local schools for environmental initiatives, as well as dozens of local and national charities. In 2008, RecycleBank members donated 750,000 points, the equivalent of $75,000 dollars, to local school environmental initiatives.

Not only do RecycleBank households save money, but cities like Cherry Hill, New Jersey have turned to conservation efforts as a way to relieve pressure on tightening city budgets.

“Immediate savings have come from RecycleBank, the recycling initiative that began township-wide on July 1. The program triggered increased recycling participation and lowered landfill fees by $200,000 in the current fiscal budget,” said Deborah Campbell, Cherry Hill’s chief financial officer.

In 2008, participating RecycleBank households redeemed 46,145,150 points for RecycleBank rewards, returning money directly back into the local economies in participating communities through reward redemption. This number is up 242 percent over the previous year.

RecycleBank, a for profit company, makes money as municipalities pay a cut of the savings generated by diverting waste from the landfill. For instance, if a municipality currently landfills 100,000 tons of waste per year at $70 per ton, and RecycleBank gets people to recycle and divert half of that, it saves $3.5 million.