RecycleBank Expands In Houston and Hartford, Conn.

RecycleBank and officials in Houston and Hartford, Conn. today announced partnerships that will greatly expand the New York-based company’s single-stream recycling rewards program in those cities.

The RecycleBank program encourages households to recycle by rewarding them with points based on the amount they recycle. The points are redeemable at local and national retailers, restaurants and grocery stores.

Houston introduced single-stream recycling in March, distributing 96-gallon carts to roughly 10,000 residences. According to Houston Solid Waste Management Director Harry Hayes, participating households recycled more in the first six months of the program than the city’s average combined.

“The City of Houston is proud to announce its partnership with RecycleBank and the expansion of our green cart, single-stream recycling program to 22,000 households,” Hayes said in a press release. “Houston has set many goals in becoming a greener, more sustainable city. Partnering with RecycleBank will both increase recycling and reduce the amount of material going to the landfill.”

Hartford, meanwhile, launched a pilot program with RecycleBank in May of 2008 servicing 4,500 homes. The expansion announced today will bring the service to 25,000 homes in and around the city. Beginning today, single-family households and multi-family buildings with up to six units will receive free 64-gallon blue recycling carts to for use in the program.

"Making Hartford sustainable makes perfect sense," Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez said in a press release. "In the first year, those 4,500 households recycled more than one million pounds of waste. Not only does that make a tremendous impact on the environment, it also makes a tremendous impact on households and in kitchens across Hartford."

Alcoa and Texas Instruments contributed funding to the Houston RecycleBank expansion. The Hartford rollout has been subsidized using special monies dedicated for green initiatives from the stimulus package signed earlier this year by President Barack Obama.