August 5th, 2009 · No Comments

From Green Right Now Reports

The City of Chicago says it will launch a partnership with RecycleBank, a rewards program that encourages households to adopt positive environmental behaviors. The program is designed to increase recycling participation and complement the city’s transition to the Blue Cart Program that is now in place in more than 241,000 households in Chicago.

RecycleBank projects the city will see about 600 tons of waste diversion and over $500,000 in local economic stimulus as a result of an initial six month field test program.

Mayor Richard M. Daley and 19th Ward Alderman Virginia Rugai made the announcement Saturday. Chicago will be the first city in Illinois to deploy the RecycleBank program.

RecycleBank motivates households to recycle by rewarding each household for the amount they recycle. The organization measures the amount of material recycled and then converts that amount into RecycleBank Points that can be redeemed for rewards, gift cards, groceries, and products through more than 1,900 local and national RecycleBank Reward Partners.

Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Target.com, Ruby Tuesday’s and CVS are among the national retailers that participate in the program. Locally participating Chicago businesses include Leona’s, Moo and Oink, ‘city sponsor’ Carson Pirie Scott, County Fair, Treasure Island, the Chicago White Sox and the Children’s Museum.

There also is an option to donate your RecycleBank Points to local school environmental programs, charities and non-profits.

“Chicago is a beautiful place to live, work and raise a family,” Mayor Daley said in a statement. “Working with RecycleBank will enable us to meet our recycling goals while giving something back to our residents. During these rough economic times, saving money on groceries, clothing, at the pharmacy, or even on free movie tickets is of significant value.”

The City of Chicago selected 10,000 households in wards 5, 8 and 19 for Phase 1 of the RecycleBank rewards program. City officials will evaluate the increase in recycling to determine the expansion of the service. RecycleBank says these areas have the longest data collection from the Blue Cart recycling program and they have a good mix of single family homes and multi-unit buildings. They also selected routes within those areas that produced lesser quantities of recyclables.

Active RecycleBank members can redeem their RecycleBank Points online, where they also can learn about their personal environmental footprint through recycling. Residents can access their account information by calling the toll free RecycleBank Customer Care Center at 1(888)727-2978.