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RecycleBank: A Sustainable Project with Promise

By David Berke

Go green, get green.

That enticing premise drives RecycleBank, a company whose multimillion-dollar recycling initiatives have shown a strong potential for promoting sustainable development. The program is not without its problems, but after investigation and a few months of use, it is clear that RecycleBank is a valuable contribution to eco-friendly living.

The RecycleBank model is simple. Participants recycle using the company’s bins, and a computer chip in their bins transmits the amount recycled to online accounts. Participants then go online and redeem their recycling “points” for purchases. Corporate sponsors donate most of the purchase options. The financial incentive boosts recycling rates, saving municipalities a considerable sum in landfill expenses. Some of that unspent landfill money is funneled back to RecycleBank, supporting its operational costs.
Across the country, RecycleBank has increased recycling rates. After implementing RecycleBank in Everett, Massachusetts, yearly recycling rates more than quadrupled from 100 pounds per home to 450. Even more impressive improvement occurred in Wilmington, Delaware, where waste diversion jumped from below one percent before RecycleBank to 37 percent after. That increase has reduced the city’s garbage flow to landfills by roughly 40 percent, saving Wilmington around $800,000 every year. The program has proven so popular that, though participation is voluntary, nine out of ten residents have joined. The formidable numbers have even garnered international attention. British politicians have expressed interest in importing RecycleBank to their country.

Along with the Tories, the program’s success caught the eye of Nilda Mesa, the environmental stewardship director here at Columbia University. After discussions with Mesa, RecycleBank agreed to a test run on Columbia’s campus. In part, Recyclebank was amenable to working with Columbia because it was founded by Ron Gonen, a Columbia Business School alum. In fact, some of the seed money for RecycleBank came from Columbia.

For this ongoing test run, RecycleBank bins are available in all freshman dorms. Students bring their recycling to a computerized kiosk, where their recycling is weighed and assigned a point value. Students then redeem their points online. I have been using the system for a few months, and it could not be any easier to operate. The whole process takes less than a minute, and the rewards website is well organized. On the operational level, RecycleBank is an unequivocal success.

This kiosk system is a first for RecycleBank, which is experimenting with the format for possible expansion into multi-unit dwellings like apartment buildings. This trial run also marks the first time RecycleBank has operated on a college campus. No data is available yet on this kiosk model’s effect on recycling, but according to Ms. Mesa, the preliminary response has been positive.

“We don’t have great data,” said Mesa. “But the people who are in it really seem to like it.”

The Columbia Spectator has already run an editorial urging an expansion of the program to upperclassmen dorms, and campus environmental groups have been eager to work with RecycleBank. Despite the enthusiasm, Mesa cautioned against expanding the program too quickly, advocating a more measured approach.

“I would rather see something well developed that makes sense rather than something that doesn’t work well,” she explained. Her prudence is warranted; an impulsive scaling up of an inefficient program would do more harm than good.

Though limited, RecycleBank already has a substantial number of participants. In an informal poll of a freshman hall, 30 to 40 percent of hall residents said they participated. Some were planning to join the soon, and others claimed to recycle without using RecycleBank.

A few students, however, admitted to abusing the program. One said he had taken free newspapers and recycled them en masse, reaping points by stealing papers. Another, who had reached the point limit for his monthly recycling, distributed his remaining recyclables to friends, who used them for points. For many, the aim is the incentive, not the positive externalities of recycling. As with any incentive-based program, the danger is that participants will completely disregard the larger purpose, instead obsessing with how they benefit personally.

The cheating is not the program’s sole issue. RecycleBank also has to consider its own environmental impact. Is it possible that the existence of the company creates a bigger carbon footprint than their recycling saves?

“Certainly, as a company, we emit carbon, but…we are eco-responsible,” said David Widger, RecycleBank’s VP for Business Development. “We [employees] take mass-transit.”

The company has taken other measures to minimize its impact. It issues business cards that are half-size, saving paper. Widger also noted that, in terms of the program itself, the garbage pickup for RecycleBank bins requires no extra garbage haulers.

“The hauler’s [RecycleBank load] is incorporated into…what they’re already doing.”

However, greenhouse gas issues do not end with pickup; the specter of CO2 looms over the reward program as well. For rewards not transacted online, the company has to send paper coupons to participants. But, given the large amount of paper and plastic recycling required to earn enough points for one coupon, the tradeoff is worth it. Plus, the offline rewards allow local businesses to participate, making RecycleBank a support to community business.

Some rewards are themselves an environmental impact difficulty. Participants can use points for conspicuous consumption items, and these purchases negate sustainable recycling gains.
Widger was quick to point out that most rewards are used to purchase basic needs. The most popular Recyclebank purchase is groceries. This facet of the rewards program is RecycleBank at its best; protecting the environment is coupled with providing the bare necessities.

The predominance of basic and eco-friendly rewards was evident on the Columbia RecycleBank rewards page. The list included a grocery section, an eco-friendly rewards section and a selection of charitable donations. Participants can even donate money to eco-initiatives at public schools.

The rewards do include some consumer items, but Widger asserted that, to attract enough participants, the company has to find “the right balance” between basics and consumer goods. Widger added that there “are boundaries on what we would offer.”

So RecycleBank’s business strives to be as environmentally conscious as possible, allowing users to make green reward choices without confining them too much. With my own reward money, I have donated over fifty dollars to green charities, and I recommend that others do the same. Besides, it’s a far better feeling to donate to charity then to get a Chipotle coupon.

Though operationally sound, the program’s sponsorship raises some green ethical concerns. Here at Columbia, the chief RecycleBank sponsor is Coca-Cola, a company with a storied record of environmental abuse. Coca-Cola is also a major player in the bottled water market, an anathema to sustainable living. Bottling plants, plastic containers and transportation for bottled water create an astronomical amount of waste, CO2 emissions and environmental degradation. This impact is entirely unnecessary, given the negligible-often nonexistent-difference between tap and bottled water.
When questioned about the iffy partnership, Widger was forthright.

“It’s hard to talk in absolutes in this world,” he said. “We have a green mission…With that said, we need to work with corporate partners who are trying to do the right thing.” Widger added that Coke has been a “wonderful partner.”

To be fair, Coke is not likely to ever take action as drastic (though environmentally friendly) as shutting down Dasani, so refusing the corporation’s support would be counterproductive. As long as bottled water is going to exist, we might as well support programs to recycle those bottles. While campaigns like Take Back the Tap should be applauded, partnering with Coke is not a major discredit to RecycleBank.

The most reassuring part of all these potential issues is how willing RecycleBank was to discuss them. Mr. Widger took sincere consideration of criticism and was eager for advice on how to improve operations. That constructive attitude at RecycleBank is the critical self-analysis required of a viable green enterprise.

RecyceBank is doing its best it can to create a large scale, effective program, but maximizing the success of the program ultimately rests with participants. RecycleBank guides consumers towards sustainable rewards choices, but redeeming points for charitable donations and groceries rather than clothing and gift cards is a consumer decision. As long as participants are conscious of the larger goal of RecycleBank-to create a more sustainable society-RecycleBank has the potential to be an ideal green company.

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1 Comment »

One Response to “RecycleBank: A Sustainable Project with Promise”

rab2148 Says:
March 7th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Great column! I had no idea RecycleBank was so widely used at Columbia.

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RecycleBank: A Sustainable Project with Promise

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