Recycling rewards program comes here

Ann O'Brien said she's tried recycling before but the effort always ended up being more trouble than it was worth. Cans and plastics accumulated in the garage of her family's East Brainerd home.

But with a new program, she and 10,000 other Allied Waste customers in Hamilton County and Catoosa and Walker counties in North Georgia are reaping rewards. The RecycleBank program, which kicked off April 19, offers customers rewards for turning in plastic, paper and aluminum.

Joe Salamone, general manager of Allied Waste of Chattanooga, said the company is picking up an average of 50 tons of recyclable material per week. Pickup is every other Monday.

By using www.Recycleitchattanooga.com, customers can register through RecycleBank and earn rewards from a number of local retailers such as CVS Pharmacy and Dick's Sporting Goods. Customers pay $5.75 a month to use the program, but Mr. Salamone said they earn $5 in rewards per week.

"We're actually the second area in Tennessee to do this," he said. "Knoxville was first."

Each customer gets a 95-gallon cart with recycling instructions on the lid. The pickup service takes cardboard, aluminum and plastics, and customers using the service don't have to sort them.

Mrs. O'Brien, who has four children, said the program has taught her family a great deal about what her family consumes. The bright green can was filled with cereal boxes, milk jugs and soda cans on Friday.

"We didn't realize how much of this was recyclable," she said. "We've gone down from needing two large garbage cans. Now we don't even fill one."

Sixty percent of what people throw away is recyclable material, Mr. Salamone said.

The material is transported to RockTenn Recycling and transported to its Knoxville material recovery facility, he said.

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