RecycleBank Expects More Growth in 2009

After expanding its services to more than 90 municipalities and 210,000 households last year from 35 municipalities and more than 100,000 homes in 2007, Philadelphia-based RecycleBank has announced it expects to double its size in 2009.

“[Last year] was a big year for us because over 1,000 rewards partners participated in the RecycleBank Rewards Program,” said Morley Ivers, chief rewards officer of RecycleBank, in a press release. “We look forward to welcoming our next thousand partners as we continue to inspire households to recycle.”

RecycleBank provides a recycling program that tracks the amount of recyclables for a community and rewards its residents with points that can be redeemd at hundreds of local and national retailers. The company claims to have doubled the recycling rates of every city that uses its program. In all, the program has diverted more than 60 million pounds of recyclables from communities waste streams.

"With the current downturn in the economy, RecycleBank offers cities and families alike the opportunity to save money," says Ron Gonen, CEO and co-founder of RecycleBank, in a press release. “By revolutionizing the way people view recycling, and ultimately consumption, we are able to put an annual average of $300 to $400 dollars of reward value in people’s pockets.”