Cincinnati Joins RecycleBank Program

The city of Cincinnati, Ohio has signed up to take part in the incentive program offered by RecycleBank. The program is slated to begin this October. This past May, the Cincinnati City Council voted to take part in the program.

In addition to working with RecycleBank on the recycling incentive program, the city also will be working with Rumpke Recycling and recycling cart manufacturer Cascade Engineering.

"The City is excited to provide this innovative new service to citizens," says Mayor Mark Mallory. "People are looking for creative new ways to become more 'green' in their everyday lives. The larger recycling carts are going to allow people to recycle much more than they do now, and the great part is that they will be rewarded for how much they recycle."

With each roll out, communities will switch from weekly to bi-weekly recycling pick up. By switching to bi-weekly pick up, Cincinnati is expected to save around $700,000 in collection costs. In addition, with the expected increase in recycling, Cincinnati hopes to save around $364,000 per year in landfill disposal fees.

The four-phase rollout of recycling carts begins this fall and citywide implementation is expected to take up to five months. Cascade will deliver the recycling carts, complete with the new recycling schedule and information for residents on signing up with RecycleBank.

"As a leading recycling firm in the Midwest, Rumpke acknowledges we have a responsibility to our customers," says Jeff Rumpke, Rumpke VP. "We know they are depending on Rumpke to discover and implement the best options to manage the waste society produces. Remaining on the forefront of technology in this industry is a must. That's the reason we've invested in new processing systems at our material recovery facility and we're proud to partner with the City of Cincinnati to implement RecycleBank in this region."

Cincinnati will use $750,000 from the Energy Efficiency & Conservation Block Grants awarded to Cincinnati through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to manage the program and to purchase the new recycling carts.