Recycling Rewards- Worth the money?

[scrapbookingmanda]

Is anyone currently using this program? Our city is getting ready to switch trash companies to one that offers the recycling rewards program. Basically for an extra $3 a month, they will weigh your recycling and you get one point for every pound you have. From what I have seen, 50 points gets a $5 gift card/coupon. Is it reasonable to expect that an average family of 4 will have enough recycling to make it worthwhile to participate? You can still get a recycling can without paying extra, you just can't get rewards.

[Curious_Kat]

Hm. Do you know what kind of recycling do they take? Find out what numbers, and also if they accept mixed paper and corrugated cardboard.

My family of five produces about thirty pounds of mixed paper every two months (mixed paper includes computer paper, shiny magazine paper, most junk mail, light cardboard like toilet paper rolls, looseleaf notebook paper, etc). Our glass/aluminum/plastic output is much smaller, but still probably a couple of pounds. We have to drive all of our waste to the landfill ourselves, so we also recycle textiles (old carpet, shoes, upholstery) and rubber, but these options usually are not available for pickup.

It also depends what you guys are in the habit of consuming- soda drinkers generate a lot of aluminum and plastic, if you like boxed frozen food the box is often a source of mixed paper (so long as it's not waxed inside), and infants and toddlers typically yield a lot of plastic milk bottles.

It's unlikely you'll generate fifty pounds a month, unless you run a business out of your home or something- but considering the low price of the program, it might be worth it, and there's a chance you could recoup the cost in a couple months. Does your state give rewards per item of recycling (West Virginia, for example, gives five cents per aluminum can), or per pound of paper? That would probably be more cost effective, although you'd have to drive to your nearest processing center.

[Cynthiabutterfly]

The program in our city offers 2.5 points per pound, and they increased the cost of our pickup, but didn't give us the option to opt-out. In a year, we got lots of coupons for free stuff, 500 coke points, and a $10 gift card. We were getting about 80-100 points every 2 weeks. I don't know how many pounds we had, but we had a large can and filled it up every two weeks.

Then all of a sudden, we just started getting 40 points every other week. Like they capped us out or something. I tried emailing them, but didn't get a response.

[motherofmolly]

i wished our local pick up offered recycling points for our recycleables. we were paying $2.50 each month for the service, but as of january, it will be free, we just have to put down a $50 deposit for the toter.....once a month pickup and everything has to be in the toter...i know i can fill the toter up in 3 weeks....they are taking everything: cans, tin cans, plastic bottles (all of them), cardboard boxes and the boxes that food comes in and the 12 pk soda boxes and newspapers and junk mail...in all honesty, it is good for the environment, your kids can learn things from it (my 3 yr old knows what gets recycled and what does not), and if you can earn extra points on top of it! whoo hoo!. some of those recycle point sites have great coupons too. i just got some points and have 7 $2 off cascadian farms coming to me.
in the beginning, i didnt think i would be able to fill a 14gallon tote...now we have 3 of those and i am planing for the change to a toter

[zoeys_mom]

WOW!!!! I want points for recycling.
Now I gotta do a search and see if Houston has anything like that. Right now I run my recycling all over town to get it out of the landfills(ok, not all over town, but loading it up when I am going by the places IS a pain)

[cma2a17]

I just got a postcard in the mail that my city is going to start a curbside recycling pickup program. Hmm, I think I'll have to check it out now!

[choka162]

I read something about a program like that recently...so envious! I drink a lot of pop so I saved all my cans for a couple of months and then drove them to the recyling center. $12!!! Woohoo^_^