Monday, March 10, 2008

New Way to Increase Recycling in Princeton?

Though you hear little talk about it being a problem, Princeton and just about every other town in New Jersey has for years been out of compliance with state mandates to recycle. The percentage of the solid waste stream being recycled in New Jersey has been dropping since 1995, from 45% down to 34% in 2004. More recent statistics are hard to find. The state mandate is to recycle 50% of the municipal solid waste stream.

Part of the solution to dropping participation rates may come from a new company doing business in New Jersey and nationwide. They're called RecycleBank, currently serve seven towns in south Jersey, and claim that by offering an incentive, they can often double recycling rates.

The program works something like this: Recycle Bank works with the existing waste/recycling hauler to refit their trucks, and supplies new rollout bins to residents. Recyclables are all put in one bin. The bin has a bar code, which allows the truck to identify and weigh each bin as it is unloaded into the truck. Over time, each resident will accumulate points according to the weight of materials he or she recycles. These points can then be cashed in for merchandise at a selection of retail outlets. This gives residents an economic incentive to recycle as much of their waste stream as possible.

Recycle Bank is essentially paid through the savings the hauler incurs in landfill fees, since the amount of garbage will decrease as recycling increases. Though the town can encourage the hauler to enlist in the program, it sounds like the hauler makes the ultimate decision, and may or may not want to change the existing contract it has with the town. One advantage for the hauler is that workman's comp expenses should go down, since the workmen will no longer need to lift heavy containers of recycled paper into the trucks (the Recycle Bank bins hook onto a lift fitted on the trucks).

The recycling committee of the Princeton Environmental Commission will be doing more research into this option for Princeton residents.

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