RecycleBank and Knoxville's Recycling Services:
a Quadruple-Win Enterprise

I got an extra-huge smile on my face this month when I paid my Waste Connections bill for Knoxville’s curb-side recycling pick-up service.

Why does paying a Waste Connections bill make me happy? Because the WC truck has a new lift on the back of it with a scale and RFID-tag reader built in, and that, in combination with the RFID that's attached to my 95-gallon-no-sorting-necessary recycling cart has earned me better than 100% return on my investment in recycling – and in less than 30 days!

That’s right: while the market tanks and the economy shudders, I received over $15 in excellent reward values for having paid my less-than-$8/month for curbside recycling.

How? Through Waste Connections of TN's new relationship with RecycleBank – an innovative green business new to Knoxville, Oak Ridge and Johnson City.

And the reward values I mentioned? Real monetary value discounts on the stuff I buy regularly, from places like Target, K-mart, and (my favorite) Knox-area mom and pop businesses. In this particular case, I chose reward values for some great steak, green cleaning supplies, and gourmet candy.

And get this: the $15 savings I’m getting on this month’s shopping is over double the cost of my curb-side recycling services for March. Suh-weet!!

A Quadrupled Winning Proposition

After talking with Melody Serafino, a Publicist for RecycleBank, I got the low-down on some other great information about this new East Tennessee recycling program. Not only is this program great for the individual recycler (I’ll explain more about that in a bit), Knoxville’s curbside recycling is now a win-win-Win-WIN!

Win # 1: The Cities of Knoxville, Oak Ridge and Jefferson City each win. Each municipality saves land-fill fees on items that Knoxvillians recycle instead of throwing away, and the city also gets more tax dollars: RecycleBank's business model is geared towards helping Knox-area money to stay in the Knox area.

Win # 2: The environment wins. In addition to less recyclable material being dumped into our landfills, when you log in to your RecycleBank account, you can see how many trees your recycling efforts have saved, as well as how much oil you’ve saved through the curb-side service.

Win # 3: Local businesses win. Over 40 percent of rewards redeemed by RecycleBank households are with local reward partners. It’s free for local businesses to join and offer incentives, and it’s a great PR opportunity for the business.

Win # 4: ...And most important of all, household recyclers win! Using RecycleBank means I save time, gas, and money by not having to drive to the recycling center, and it’s so flipping easy to recycle now!

The 95 gallon recycling cart supplied by Waste Connections is for single-stream recycling. What does that mean? Mixed paper, phone books, magazines, newspaper, cardboard, steel and aluminum cans, and all 7 recyclable types of plastics – including plastic bags! – can be dumped together into the bin.

NO SORTING! And twice a month on recycling day, I just wheel my container out to the curb. Easy!

So Knoxville: if you’ve ever not recycled because you:

• Don’t like sorting
• Don’t like loading up the recycling in your car, waiting in the recycling line at the recycling center, and distributing your recycling into the appropriate bins
• Think it’s too expensive
• Can’t see what the benefits would be…

…I think you might just have found the right service to make recycling an easy and green-as-St.-Patrick’s-Day-beer way to do the right thing with your household’s recyclables.

Here are the details:

Residential Curb-side pick up

WC picks up every other week on designated days in Knoxville City, Knox County and other surrounding areas. County residents get more information on curbside pick up here, and City residents can call 865.522.0078 to sign up over the phone.

Waste Connections offers single or multiple recycling bin pick up, with source separated or single stream options, and they offer green waste recycling programs as well.

Commercial Recycling Services

Recycling services for commercial customers include the following options:

• Container sizes of one cubic yard to eight cubic yards
• Source separated or single stream collection programs
• Waste minimization programs
• Recyclable Processing Operations
• Clean and dirty MRFs (materials recycling facilities)
• Baling
• Third party material sales

Click here to request commercial recycling information or services.

Do you have a Knoxville-area recycling event, suggestion, or story to tell?