The city of Phoenix has ambitious goals to reduce the amount of waste filling up in our landfills by 40 percent in the next four years and by 100 percent by 2050. Mayor Greg Stanton says he wants to be a zero-waste city.
While it sounds like a lofty goal, City of Phoenix Public Works officials said they were encouraged by the increase they have seen in the number of people recycling. But the city still fell short of the national average when it came to waste that was being diverted from landfills to the recycling bins.
With the hope of encouraging residents to recycle, the city launched a smartphone app and a program that would allow people to win points for separating the trash, using the blue bins, and even for reading educational articles on the website.
You can then redeem those points for gift cards, discounts at local and national restaurant chains, magazine subscriptions, discounts at clothing stores, car repair shops, free tickets, health and beauty products, and even donate your money to good causes.
Two hundred vendors have signed up to help inspire people to recycle, said Lucas Mariacher the Recycling Coordinator for the city of Phoenix.
Since the program started more than 3,000 people had signed up.
Mariacher said most trash was recyclable and making people aware of this was one of their big goals.
The city landfill in Buckeye was already filling up fast. Every day, about 2,600 tons of trash is dumped there.
The city accepted most recyclables — except for fabrics, electronic waste, film plastic. For a list of complete items the city can accept in those bins you can visit here.
To join the RecycleBank program, you can create your account here or download the app on your phone.
