Since the launching of the RecycleBank rewards program one year ago, the City of Hollywood has collected more than 6.8 million pounds of recyclable material, and residents have redeemed more than 16.5 million points at local, regional and national businesses, said Kee Eng, administrative services manager for the Public Works Department.
The benefits to Hollywood, Eng said, include saving the City money by avoiding landfill fees (it costs the City $98 to burn one ton of garbage), generating money since the City receives $58 per ton of recycled material and preserving the environment by reducing pollution from incinerations.
“The program has been extremely successful,” said Public Works Director Greg Turek. “It has removed a lot of tonnage from our waste stream.”
The program, which encourages residents to recycle by rewarding households with points for their efforts, has attracted around 15,000 residents to activate accounts with RecycleBank. And although the City delivered more than 30,000, 95-gallon recycling containers to households last January, Eng said the residents who have not activated accounts could still be recycling. Active participants receive points based on the amount they recycle – 2½ points per pound of recyclables – and they can redeem these points for coupons at national retailers, such as Publix and CVS, and 45 local businesses, such as Sage Oyster Bar and Ocean Alley. Residents redeem their points at Publix more than any other business partner, Turek said.
Each container contains a personalized identification tag or RFID chip. Recycling trucks read this tag, record the weight and convey the number to RecycleBank, which converts the amount to points and credits the resident’s account.
Eng said they have encountered several problems with the identification tag, including tags coming loose or falling off, preventing the scanner from identifying the homeowner. He encourages residents to periodically check the tag, located on the front of the container, to ensure it remains in place. Anyone with a loose or missing tag should call the Public Works Department.
Currently, only single-family homes that are Hollywood Sanitation customers can sign up for the RecycleBank program, but Eng said RecycleBank is developing ways to track recycling for multi-unit homes like apartments and condominiums. They City might implement this feature if it becomes available.
In addition to redeeming points at national, regional and local businesses, RecycleBank participants can also donate their points to two Hollywood schools: The Quest Center and Hollywood Hills High School. RecycleBank offers environmental grants to schools in communities it services, but the caveat is the students need to earn points in a true grassroots effort, encouraging friends and neighbors to donate points to their school.
“This program has received attention around the state and around the country for its success,” Eng said. “It has been recognized by several different agencies for its impact on the environment.”
He said Anderson Cooper featured the program on his show AC360°, and the City received a 2010 Sustainable Government Best Practice Award from the Collins Center for Public Policy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the important social and economic public policy issues facing Florida and beyond and dedicated to finding meaningful solutions to their challenges, according to the organization’s website.
The award-winning program is a single-stream recycling program, meaning residents do not need to separate glass, paper, aluminum, etc.
“Everything goes into the same container,” Eng said. “We ask residents to be considerate of the fact that these carts are for recycling only, not household garbage.”
For information regarding problems with the collection of recycling carts, contact Waste Pro at 954-967-4200. For any problems with the recycling cart, contact the City’s Environmental Services Division at 954-967-4320. And for any questions or concerns with RecycleBank accounts, reward points, participating retailers or account activation, contact RecycleBank at 1-888-727-2978.
