Recyclebank, Cincinnati Celebrate One-Year Anniversary

In October, the city of Cincinnati celebrates the one-year anniversary of the launch of its enhanced recycling program and the implementation of the Recyclebank rewards program.

The city of Cincinnati can now boast a 49 percent increase in the tonnage of recyclables collected in the past six months compared with the same period in 2010, according to a press release issued by Recyclebank. Recycling diversion increased to 17 percent, which exceeds the 2011 benchmark of 15 percent established by a city council motion in May 2008.

“We had a great first year,” says Larry Falkin, director of the Cincinnati Office of Environmental Quality. “We were able to grow participation in the recycling program by nearly 75 percent, increase the amount of recyclables collected curbside by nearly 50 percent and save the city nearly $1 million through decreased landfill disposal costs and increased revenues from the sale of recyclables.”

When the enhanced recycling program launched in October 2010 in partnership with Cincinnati-based waste hauler Rumpke Recycling, recycling cart manufacturer Cascade Engineering and Recyclebank, Cincinnati became the largest Midwest city to offer residents Recyclebank’s innovative rewards-for-recycling program citywide, according to Recyclebank. Part of the program’s success is in light of the adoption of larger recycling carts, which allow residents to recycle three-to-five times more material than the traditional 18-gallon bins, the company says. As part of the enhanced recycling program rollout, each resident received a 64- or 96-gallon recycling cart to use for biweekly recycling collection.

“Cincinnati’s enhanced recycling program is even more successful than we expected,” Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory says. “It is clear that our community wants to recycle more to help the environment and save the city money. The more we recycle, the less the city has to pay to dump our garbage at the landfill. As we head into year two, we look forward to even higher levels of recycling and more savings.”

Through the Recyclebank program, Cincinnati residents can earn Recyclebank points each time they recycle. They can then use those points to “shop” at Recyclebank.com for rewards like discounts and deals from local and national businesses, including local favorites such as Thornton’s, Graeter’s, LaRosa’s Pizzeria, Penn Station East Coast Subs and many more. Recyclebank also has hundreds of national reward partners, including Ziploc^®, AVEENO^®, Coca-Cola^®, Macy's, McDonald’s^®, Nestle Purina^®, Unilever, Brita^® and Bumble Bee Foods^®.

Atul Nanda, Midwest vice president at Recyclebank, says, “Cincinnati’s fantastic success truly exemplifies the collective impact we can have in our communities by taking small, everyday green actions—all while earning great rewards from your favorite local and national businesses.”

Jeff Rumpke, vice president of Rumpke, says “At Rumpke, we are seeing a greater volume of material coming to our Cincinnati material recovery facility, in large part due to the addition of larger recycling containers, not only in the city of Cincinnati but in other parts of our service area. The addition of these carts helps us with our company’s overall goal to reduce the amount of waste entering our landfills through increased recycling efforts, and we are glad many Cincinnati residents are helping us with our mission.”

Rumpke began preparing for the expected uptick in recycling in Cincinnati in 2009 with a $6.5 million renovation of its material recovery facility.