Trash Talking

Hi-Tech Program Offers Residents Financial Incentive to Recycle

By Lee Molloy

As part of a commitment to a green North Miami, the city will soon pioneer a recycling program that could not only save the city as much as $173,000 per year in landfill costs, but will actually reward individual homeowners for participating.

“Now I get money for my trash?” asked Councilman Jacques Despinosse at the city’s Aug. 26 council meeting. “You get money for your recycling,” answered Tim Bowers, regional manager for RecycleBank, LLC, the company that the council unanimously agreed would take over the city’s recycling. “The average home will receive $240 per year in rewards.”

RecycleBank currently is contracted for recycling services by communities in nine states, including New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The company plans similar partnerships with cities in Texas and Minnesota.

“If you think about solar or wind power or buying a hybrid, they’re important, but today they’re not something that’s accessible to the average person,” RecycleBank’s CEO Ron Gonen recently told U.S. News and World Report. “I look at recycling as the average thing that every person and household can do.”

Mayor Kevin Burns said it’s also “the right thing to do.”

The program is based on a three-step program of “Recycle, Record and Reward.” The first step, a single-stream recycling process, allows the homeowner to put everything into an all-purpose bin rather than sort recycled trash into separate containers. Recyclable materials include cans made from aluminum, steel or tin; glass bottles and jars; various plastic containers; newspapers, magazines and other cardboard and paper products, including all that annoying junk mail.

On pickup day, trash collectors will retrieve the bin, or “smart cart,” and record the weight of the recycled materials right at the curb. The weight is recorded by way of a Radio Frequency Identification chip physically embedded in the bin. The RFID chip is linked to each homeowner’s identification code so the weight can be converted into points credited directly to the homeowner’s RecycleBank account.

Then the materials are transported to the materials recovery facility, where the glass, metal, plastic and paper are dumped onto a conveyor belt, separated by an automated system and sent on to various recycling facilities.

A skeptical Councilman Scott Galvin inquired whether there was actually a market for recyclables. “Coca-Cola is interested in recycling the metal and the plastics,” answered Bowers, adding that there is a market for the construction of “park benches and boat docks,” which often use recycled materials.

Undoubtedly for some residents, the rewards part of the program will be an even greater recycling incentive than going green. Each time a bin is scanned and weighed, points are added to an account that can be accessed online and redeemed as discounts or special offers with participating retail partners such as PetCo, The Home Depot and Bed, Bath & Beyond. Residents who don’t have home Internet access can use two public computers — one at City Hall and one at the North Miami Library.

“Mayor Burns wants to make [North Miami] the greenest city in the U.S., and this is another step in that direction,” said North Miami resident Kenneth Newman. “For the city to get into a very cutting-edge recycling program where homeowners are eventually going to make money or get credits … is taking it to the next level.”

Although approved to begin in October, Public Works Director Mark Collins informed the council that “we hope we have [the program] up and running at 100 percent no later than the first of February.”

Councilman Michael Blynn wanted to be very clear on the program’s potential cost to the city.

“The bottom line is, it is not costing us any money?” Blynn asked. Collins answered that the system was actually a revenue source, and went on to identify another way the city could cash in: advertising revenues. The bins would present a “good opportunity for somebody who might want to put some kind of logo on the side,” Collins said.

Burns seemed excited by the program, saying it was “great for our city. North Miami will be the first city [to use RecycleBank] in the state of Florida,” Burns said, adding that the program would “actually offer some relief to our residents with the utility bill.”