PA Environment Digest

The City of Philadelphia this week announced a new partnership with RecycleBank to reward residents with up to $240 a year for recycling and saving the City millions of dollars in landfill fees.

The program, Philadelphia Recycling Rewards, will be phased in throughout the City starting in February 2010. The program is being expanded with the help of a $708,400 federal grant.

"I am thrilled to announce Philadelphia Recycling Rewards, a partnership with Philadelphia founded RecyleBank. Recycling has become a way of life in Philadelphia, but there is more to be done. With the opportunity to get rewarded, I expect every Philadelphian to join their neighbors in recycling." said Mayor Michael A. Nutter.

"Philadelphia took the initiative in 2005 to be the first City to pilot our service and since then we have grown to service millions of people in over 20 states and the UK. We are proud and excited to have the opportunity to continue to service the City of Philadelphia." said Ron Gonen, CEO and co-founder of RecycleBank. "We look forward to helping the City of Philadelphia become a model of urban environmental management."

RecycleBank administers a rewards program that gives each household discount coupons or gift cards to hundreds of local and national businesses based on how much they recycle. Points can also be used to make charitable contributions to help fund $5,000 green grants for City schools.

Philadelphia's current recycling rate is about 7 percent and increased to 12.4 percent by July 2009. As a result of increasing its recycling rate, it decreased its landfill costs by $4.8 million. The City has set a goal of recycling 20 percent of its household waste by 2011 and 25 percent by 2015.

In 2004-05, as one of its first projects, RecycleBank did a pilot program in Philadelphia's Germantown and Chestnut Hill neighborhoods. By the end of the project, the recycling rates tripledi n the pilot areas.

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