Largest City in Texas Has Lowest Recycling Rate

Though programs for recycling have been in place throughout the city, there had been little push to involve its residents. City officials promise that new partnerships and expansion of recycling programs will help encourage residents to recycle.

ca By newly partnering with RecycleBank they will be able to increase recycling and reduce the amount of material going into their landfills. Beginning on Nov. 9, RecycleBank will now offer its services to 22,000 new residents who can benefit from its incentives such as coupons, gift cards and discounts that participants can earn. The program which is already offered in 21 states has been warmly received and offers the incentives based on the amount recycled by each household.

In March of this year Houston made the switch from a dual-stream to a single-stream recycling program, meaning all materials (paper, plastic, aluminum, cardboard, glass, tin, etc) are collected in a single bin. Over ten thousand homes started the program and participation in those neighbourhoods grew from 224 percent to 55 percent in a six month period.

Houston expects participation to continue to grow especially since each household has the potential to earn rewards for their efforts. RecycleBank estimates that individual homes could earn as much as $450 in rewards yearly by participating in the program.

In addition, $3 million in federal stimulus money will be used to expand the single-stream recycling system to another 50,000 Houston households

Jennifer Maclellan is the Senior Writer for the Green Guide Network. You can contact her at jennifer@greenguidenetwork.com.

http://www.greenguidenetwork.com

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