Recycling bribes?
Recycle Bank program makes pitch
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Recyclables on the side of a Jamesport road Tuesday. Riverhead recycling efforts got an 'F' last year from Citizens Campaign for the Environment, an influential environmental group. The state is also pressuring the town to improve.
That's the gist behind a program called Recycle Bank, which Riverhead Town officials were asked to consider last Thursday.
The program outfits homeowners in participating municipalities with special containers used to weigh the amount of recyclable materials they separate from trash, said Beth Kean-Waddell of Recycle Bank, who made a presentation at a public work session last Thursday in Town Hall.
The recyclables are weighed at whatever facility the town uses, and points are awarded to a collective townwide pool based on how much recycling participants did, Ms. Kean-Waddell explained. Each household or property involved in the program then receives an equal share of the town's overall point total. Those individual points can be used like a gift card to make purchases from participating businesses.
"We want to motivate residents to recycle more by providing them an incentive." she told the Town Board. "You can turn trash into cash."
Residents in communities that have the program earn an average of $140 worth of rewards annually, she said, and recycling rates increase.
The town's recycling efforts were graded "F" by a local environmental group last year. It is also is under pressure from the state to better document recycling rates among businesses and condominiums, which use private carters not affiliated with the town.
Among communities that used the program, recycling rates increased by 670 percent in Wilmington, Del., 330 percent in North Miami, Fla., and 240 percent in Rochester Hills, Mich., according to Ms. Kean-Waddell.
"It's the carrot approach rather than the stick," she said.
Town officials said they'd need more information before they could decided whether to participate. For one thing, an agreement would have to be worked out between the town and Recycle Bank in which Recycle Bank would be paid a fee to administer the program.
That amount had not been determined.
tgannon@timesreview.com
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