Reward program nearly doubles recycling rate

RecycleBank and AAA Recycling and Trash Removal Services of Fairfax, Virginia, announced that residential recycling rates have increased 90 percent after the implementation of an innovative program designed to encourage more recycling. The increase in recycling is tied to RecycleBank, a new program offering from AAA to their customers that uses rewards to motivate people to recycle. After launching the program on June 2, 2008, households have nearly doubled the amount of waste they recycle.

RecycleBank motivates households and communities to recycle by measuring the amount of recyclables from each household and then converting the weight into RecycleBank points. These points can be viewed and redeemed at www.recyclebank.com with over 450 national and local RecycleBank reward partners.

“We knew that our customers could do more recycling and RecycleBank provided the motivation,” said Brad Baty, general manager of AAA Recycling and Trash Removal Services. “RecycleBank is a great way for us to improve environmental efforts by raising curbside recycling rates. RecycleBank’s program presented AAA with the opportunity to be the channel through which the increased participation is realized.”

Participating households redeem their RecycleBank points with national RecycleBank reward partners such as Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Green Mountain Coffee, and CVS/pharmacy, as well as with local Northern Virginia retailers such as Shoppers, Anita’s, Paisano’s Pizza, and Broadway Gallery. Many local and national retailers recognize the value of partnering with an environmentally-friendly company such as RecycleBank. Reward partners gain exposure in the marketplace, which leads to customer loyalty and repeat business. Additionally, households recognize the value of shopping with retailers that believe in the importance of environmental initiatives and community.

“The RecycleBank program has been absolutely fantastic for our community and was frankly long overdue”, says Peter Brownell, RecycleBank member and AAA customer. “We were conscientious before, but now that we have the program we’ve increased our household recycling tremendously and use our rewards points for useful, everyday purchases.”

“As RecycleBank continues to expand across the country, our vision to preserve the environment by dramatically increasing household recycling rates becomes more and more attainable,” said Ron Gonen, co-founder and CEO of RecycleBank.

With the program’s immediate success, AAA is considering the implementation of RecycleBank in other markets.