Will recycle for Starbucks latte
I wish I lived in Everett, Massachusetts. The lucky folks there actually get PAID to recycle. Before trucks collect recyclables, they weigh the items and scan the household ID embedded in the bin.
That info is sent to a Web site that converts each household's haul into rewards, like discounts at CVS or the grocery store. "Basically it's like a frequent-flier program for recyclers," says a story in this week's issue of Newsweek.
The whole thing is run by RecycleBank, a startup based in New York. Residents have been motivated by getting paid, to say the least. In Wilmington, Delaware, where RecycleBank operates, the recycling rate has increased from 3% to 32% in one year. Everett residents have been recycling ten times as much, the story says.
Households get 2.5 points per pound of recyclables, up to a maximum of 450 points or $45 a month. The company makes money by selling advertising and by compiling a database of green consumers.
RecycleBank wants to expand in the South and Midwest, where recycling rates are much lower than on the coasts, leaving more room for improvement. Sigh. It may be hard to convince them to come to Los Angeles. Perhaps I will move. So what if it snows in Everett? Free lattes! Free lattes!!
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About The Bargain Hunter
Daily News staff writer Julia Scott loves to find bargains on everything from groceries to Gucci. Her tips will help keep your hard earned cash where it belongs - in your pocket.
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In Hong Kong, for the newer developed residential neighborhood, there are trucks going around at a fixed time schedule to apartment buildings collecting recycled items and pay cash for them.
Sadly, this would never work in LA because people would be stealing each other's recyclables. Heck, I see people here rummaging through trash anyway and carting stuff on in stolen grocery carts.
You are right. They would have to be locked bins, or something for it to work in LA. When people sort through the bins in the alley I don't mind so much. I figure they must be pretty poor to resort to this, and better them collect the CRV than the city. ~Julia
I agree w/ Angie & Julia. I'm afraid we have no confidence that some will not abuse the recycling; for example, putting heavy non-recyclables in the bins or some such behavior. Or somebody stealing unless you stand there & watch. But if the idea is streamlined, I surely will go for it since I compost & recycle hard already.
LA city is so bad and dishonest the income from selling the recyclable container goes into the general fund and is spent on whatever the city Council wants to waste our money on.
It is not used to reduce the trash collection fee that we pay in our water and power bill which was allegedly to buy new police which were provided not in the Valley but in downtown LA.
I feel like not even sorting it anymore and even though the city is corrupt I still sort trash from recyclable.