RecycleBank has just won our Lazy Environmentalist Award for Reinventing Recycling. Here’s the deal: You put all your recyclables into one bin (paper, plastic, bottles, cans, etc), then RecycleBank comes by, picks it up, weighs your recycling, and awards you points for your trash that are redeemable for gift certificates at some of your favorite retailers. If you already recycle, this is a no-brainer. If you’re on the fence about recycling, this is still a no-brainer.
If you’re interested in turning your trash into money, go here right now to start your free account. If this sounds difficult, it’s not. If you can send an email or purchase something from Amazon.com, you can do this no problemo, chico.
RecycleBank currently serves more than one million users in 20 states. CEO Ron Gonen pointed out, while accepting his designation as a “Champion of the Earth” from the United Nations’ Environment Program (ahem, ahem), RecycleBank has enabled U.S. cities to save “tens of millions of dollars annually in landfill disposal fees, save over 1.5 million trees, and save millions of gallons of oil.” He folds all that goodness up into a vision he has called the Gconomy. I had to cringe at the term as well — just what the world needs, another semi-catchy and meaningless term that doesn’t even rhyme… on the upside, this catchy and meaningless slogan represents a very cool vision for something that’s easy to use, rewards people for doing the right thing, and eventually saves taxpayers money. That’s nothing to cringe at, or sneeze at for that matter.
They sum up this Win-Win-Win succinctly with their take on the 3 R’s: Recycle. Redeem. Reward.
