by PegNews wire

The high sign-up rates reflect a nearly 400% increase in recycling for Carrollton.

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CARROLLTON — The City of Carrollton is the first city in Texas to offer incentives for recycling through RecycleBank, a loyalty rewards program. Residents have responded quickly, and at the end of the first quarter in use, the results were an astounding 87% participation rate recorded. This followed the initial 35% increase in recycling tonnage recorded during the first month.

Prior to the program launch on December 1, 2008, recycling carts were retrofitted with identification tags in order to track the amount of recycling per household. Residents were invited to register with RecycleBank online so that they could use points earned by recycling to save money at local and national restaurants and retailers.

The first quarter reward points redeemed valued $12,232 while the second quarter reward points redeemed valued $45,626, reflecting a 373% increase in redemption in just six months. Initially, 33% of all Carrollton households activated an account. The activation rate hit 50% in July, so half of all Carrollton households are earning reward points while helping the environment.

Recycling has increased significantly, specifically in certain areas: “One of the areas in Carrollton where I have noticed a substantial increase in recycling participation since starting RecycleBank is in the Nix area, east of Josey and south of Belt Line Road,” said Rodney Buck, operations supervisor for Republic Services, who manages the City of Carrollton contract. “We used to be able to run this area with one piece of equipment and it now requires two trucks. We have seen an increase of approximately 4 to 5 tons.”

Raymond Brown, one of Republic Services’ drivers, said, “I have been on this route for about five years, and when we started RecycleBank the recycling participation in the area, the drive pretty much doubled, judging from the number of recycling carts that are out for service.” Brown collects the waste carts, and can verify a recycling increase as well as a waste decrease, saying he was able to “go further before having to head to the landfill.”

The city and RecycleBank have received local and national media attention, including mentions on television shows such as Oprah and nightly news programs, as well as in Good Housekeeping and O Magazine.

Source: City of Carrollton