An alternative to Recyclebank, Rewards for Recycling grows

By Shawn Wright | WRN reporter

Sept. 8 -- When Kurt Soper was approached two years ago by Rewards for Recycling, a community-based incentive recycling program, to be in his Davison Township, Mich., community, he said the benefits were obvious.

"We´re relatively progressive here in Davison Township, with regard to recycling and the whole green concept," said Soper, supervisor for Davison Township. "So, it fit in with our ideology."

In 2009, Davison Township was the first to sign on with Rewards for Recycling, which like its name suggests, rewards people for recycling. The program serves 5,800 households in Davison Township, about 10 miles east of Flint.

Prior to launching Rewards for Recycling through Flint-based waste and recycling hauler Richfield Management LLC, Davison Township´s recycling rate was 18.2%. That figure has since risen to 71.5%.

"We had a pretty robust recycling program before," Soper said, "but [Rewards for Recycling] definitely gave it a big shot in the arm."

Rewards for Recycling, which is akin to New York City-based Recyclebank, provides residents in a community with an RFID tag that´s placed on their existing recycling bin. In some communities, new recycling bins or recycling carts provided by the communities or waste haulers will have the recycling identifier tag already attached.

The RFID tag is then automatically scanned each time a household´s recycling container appears for pickup, and the household is given credit for having recycled during that period. A household can then log on to Rewards for Recycling´s website and immediately print out savings from local and national businesses, with a focus on the local market.

Rewards for Recycling is now in 14 different communities and serves a little more than 110,000 households, said Preston Hards, the company´s marketing director.

By the end of this year, Hards said, the company will be in six more municipalities. Half of those will be in Michigan, with three others in Summerville, S.C.; Golden, Colo.; and Minneapolis.

There are a couple of aspects that make the company different from Recyclebank, said Daniel Garman, CEO and managing partner for Recycling for Rewards. The main being that Rewards for Recycling´s program does not give points based on a community´s total weight recycled, nor does it make households compete against one another to accumulate more recycling weight. Also, Rewards for Recycling works on a tiered approach, with three levels that give increased values and discounts.

Another difference, Garman said, is that Rewards for Recycling allows haulers to have their own program. For example, EDS Waste Solutions in Golden, Colo., is calling its program EDS Rewards, powered by Recycling for Rewards.

"We just are the backside," Garman said. "We do a lot of the backend work on the website, with sales and finding [haulers] discounts and local businesses to sponsor it. The bottom line is we can make it look like it´s their product, so it gives the perception that they´re bigger than they are."

Scott Lamb, COO of Recyclebank, said having more competitors in the marketplace helps validate that these types of programs will continue to be around.

Recyclebank, which began modestly in the Mid-Atlantic area in 2005, is in 2.7 million households nationwide, Lamb said, and the total curbside recycling opportunities is somewhere between 20-25 million.

"There´s plenty of market out there," Lamb said. "From our perspective, competition is good; it keeps everyone on their toes and honest. à We have a different philosophy, but I think both programs work well. Our philosophy is more on rewarding folks for recycling more volume, where they´re looking at more participation-based."

Contact Waste & Recycling News reporter Shawn Wright at wright@crain.com

or 313-446-0346.

w w w . w a s t e r e c y c l i n g n e w s . c o m