RecycleBank Pilot Underway

In an innovative attempt to increase recycling rates, Hamilton County and Rumpke are piloting RecycleBank, an incentive system that rewards residents for recycling, in the City of Montgomery. To date, the project has shown exciting results! During November and December of 2008 and January of 2009, Montgomery increased their total tons recycled by 69% over the same three months a year ago.
 

City of Montgomery Recycling Increase with RecycleBank
Month	Pre-Pilot (2007/2008)	Post-Pilot (2008/2009)	Increase
November	86.77 tons	133.26 tons	46.49 tons (54%)
December	87.69 tons	172.54 tons	84.85 tons (97%)
January	78.66 tons	120.99 tons	42.33 tons (53%)

The Hamilton County Solid Waste Management District partnered with Rumpke Recycling and RecycleBank to bring the first RecycleBank project in Ohio to Hamilton County. Montgomery presented an ideal area for the pilot because of their moderate size of 3,800 households and because Montgomery residents already use wheeled carts for trash collection. After almost a year of planning, the pilot project began on October 27, 2008.

All Montgomery residents participating received a 64-gallon wheeled recycling cart with a RFID (radio frequency identification) tag. When Rumpke collects the recycling, a special scale on the truck weighs the cart and a computer records the exact amount of material each household recycled. Residents then receive “RecycleBank Points” they can redeem on a website or over the phone for their choice of discount coupons or gift certificates. Each household participating can receive up to 35 RecycleBank Points a month, or 420 per year. Residents choose from dozens of local retailers like Big Apple Bagels and Go Bananas Comedy Club and hundreds of national retailers like Starbucks and Whole Foods. If residents prefer, they can donate their points to a local school grant program that helps schools fund environmental projects.

On the website, residents can see an exact record of what they recycled and the corresponding environmental benefits of their efforts in trees saved and gallons of oil conserved. Residents also like the wheeled cart because it holds more recyclables than a bin and is easier to move around.

Although residents love the incentives and recycling has increased dramatically, the program is still a pilot project. RecycleBank requires a significant upfront investment that remains a barrier to many communities. To initiate the pilot in the City of Montgomery, for example, the District received a $100,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and contributed $70,000 to cover the cost of the recycling carts. Rumpke Recycling invested over $70,000 in upgrades to outfit two recycling trucks with scales. In addition, Rumpke is paying a monthly administrative fee to RecycleBank.

Although the upfront costs are high, we hope the pilot project will show that the resulting recycling rate increase makes RecycleBank a solid investment. We will continue to update you on the progress of this exciting two year pilot.