I live Northern California, otherwise known as “Recycling Heaven”. If New Hampshire is “Live Free or Die” then NoCal is most assuredly “Recycle or Die” (I sort of like how that’s on the true side, considering how quickly we’re using the Earth’s resources). Recycling here is a way of life, you just do it–work places have recycling bins, every neighborhood (it seems) has recycling pick-up service (no toting it anywhere), and even street corners sport recycling bins next to trash cans. This is why, every time I visit the East Coast, I become disoriented. I wander confusedly looking for a place to deposit my empty water bottle while my friends patiently point to the trash can. I naively ask my hosts where they put their recycling when I finish my bottle of beer. I just cannot wrap my head around the idea that people throw away perfectly good glass, aluminium (do you know how much that’s worth???), paper, and plastic (that’s literally oil).

Luckily, there is hope on the horizon for West Coast denizens heading East.

Some cities are talking about Mandating recycling. Of course, by ’some cities’, I mean San Francisco which already is keeping 70% of its waste out of landfills. SF wants to hit 75% though, and that’s why it’s talking about mandating recycling under pain of stopping garbage pick up service if you fail to comply. I must admit, I sort of like this approach. It’s very ‘eye for an eye’. Don’t bother to recycle? You can sit in your trash while your neighbors look at you askance. Why is SF doing all this though? According to Mayor Newsom it’s because “You want to be the greatest city. You want to be the leading city.” Hear that NYC? That sounds like a challenge. You might have better bagels, but we have better recycling! Are you going to stand for that?

But, there’s a way I think will work even better. Pay people to recycle. I love this. The company at the forefront of this movement (RecycleBank) has a simple formula:

1) Charge municipalities $24 per household to run the service.
2) Weigh the amount of recycling households deposit via some fancy technology (RFID). Amazingly, most folks don’t cheat–they must fear the recycling gods.
3) Pay the household for what they deposit via gift cards to stores like Starbucks and CVS.
4) People recycle way more and throw away a lot less.
5) Municipalities save more than $24 per household since they don’t have to haul all the garbage.
6) RecycleBank makes more money by selling the recyclables to recycling plants.

Brilliant. Everyone wins. And, it’s already been proven effective in the cities it’s been started in.

“RecycleBank persuaded Philadelphia officials to allow it to conduct a pilot project involving 2,500 households in two Philadelphia neighborhoods, upscale Chestnut Hill and modest West Oak Lane. Six months later, 90 percent of the households in both neighborhoods were participating, up from 35 percent in Chestnut Hill and 7 percent in West Oak Lane — averaging 25 pounds a week of recyclables per home. The city is considering whether to contract for the service and extend it.”


So how can you bring this kind of recycling to your hometown? Check this out. The sooner you do it, the sooner I stop asking you where the nearest recycling bin is when I visit. Happy Recycling!