Bin bounty

Within months, UK residents could be cashing in on their recycling under a new scheme which has already encouraged Americans to go green on their rubbish.
 
RecycleBank offers an incentive approach to waste management by enabling households to swap recyclables for points that can be spent on selected goods. On average, around £25 worth of points can be collected on a customer’s account each month.
 
Under the system, which the Conservatives are hoping to bring to British councils “as soon as possible”, residents put all their recyclables in a bin which holds a special chip to record the weight. For each pound of waste, they will be awarded points. They can be redeemed against goods offered by a list of participating companies. In the US pharmacy chains, pet stores, grocers and Coca-Cola all feature on the list of companies keen to improve their environmental credentials through the trade-off. Ron Gonen, co-founder of RecycleBank, said the scheme had seen 90% of the population of some communities sign up by offering incentives which appeal to everyone. In the most successful cases, it has reduced landfill by 40%. RecycleBank’s profit comes from a share of what cities save in landfill tax.

What stops people raiding neighbours’ bins to pocket more money is a monthly cap on the number of points each household can earn. “There’s only the incentive to recycle what you have, but not to steal anything beyond that,” says Gonen. “Because everybody has the opportunity to benefit, it’s that community aspect that motivates people to follow the rules.”

Gonen says that Recyclebank has been in direct talks with several cities in the UK, including the city of London and mayor Boris Johnson about the possibility of establishing its rewards recycling programme.

The scheme is very much the ‘carrot’ approach to encouraging people to recycle, as opposed to the ‘stick’ of waste charging or compulsory sorting. In the small Japanese community of Kamikatsu, the mayor has employed the ‘stick’, by forcing residents to compost their own food waste and sort rubbish into 34 different categories.  – Louise Vennells

18 August 2008

Louise Vennells