Mayor Kasim Reed introduces recycling rewards

Putting bottles in the right bin could save you cash on your next dinner bill. Mayor Kasim Reed announced last week that Recycling Perks, a Virginia-based recycling incentive program, is coming to Atlanta. 
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? The city’s Cartlanta project gave Atlantans 96-gallon recycling bins in 2012 to encourage more recycling. And since residents can now divert such large amounts of paper and plastic from landfills, the city is trying its hand at an incentivized recycling initiative — again. According to John Weber of the mayor’s office, the city chose RP because the sustainability advocacy group has shown a knack for upping recycling rates in its service areas.
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? Residents who enroll in the new program can log their recycling habits on RP’s website. Users will register the serial number from their recycling receptacle to tally the weekly trash haul. For each pickup, contributing members are awarded 25 points which can be saved or spent in RP’s online rewards shop. The reward market offers discounts on anything from Sunday brunch to getting locked in a room with friends. Really. 
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? The new program is expected to have a greater impact than the city’s 2009 ReCART incentive project, which gave only 10,000 households the 96-gallon recycling bin that the whole city eventually received in 2012. Officials at the mayor’s office say that, because of advances in technology, RP boasts a simple user interface that ReCART could not.
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? Interested business owners who want to offer incentives can sign up for free and can offer any discount they see fit. RP doesn’t claim a percentage or fee from the rewards processing. Dempsey says the program simply encourages more sustainable lifestyle choices. 
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? And if local food coupons and event discounts don’t sound enticing, one Virginia location has a buy one, get one free deal for cruise-liner tickets for the price of 100 points — or the equivalent of what the average Atlantan leaves on their curb over four pick-up days.