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The Real Story spent a day at the Clean Tech Open in San Jose, and had the opportunity to talk with Keynote Speaker Ron Gonen, co-founder of RecycleBank. As its name suggests, RecycleBank is a program that rewards its users for the amount they recycle.  Already in operation in 25 states, RecycleBank provides its user with a recycle bin embedded with a computer chip. That chip allows the collection truck to “read” the volume of recycling bin and post a deposit to the user’s account, based on the amount of recycling done at the household level.

Where do people redeem their rewards? Ron tells us that RecycleBank has about 1000 different partners at this time, from Whole Foods to restaurants and consumer goods providers.

Ron’s point is that “eco” is not just about ecology, but about economy as well. In the RecycleBank model, recycling is good for the economy in that it reduces the need for land fill sites, a tax burden, and gives companies that buy the recyclables access to necessary materials, cheaply. For more information about RecycleBank, go to www.recyclebank.com.