Hollywood Looks to Score Big Through Innovative Partnership With RecycleBank

HOLLYWOOD, Fla., Feb. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The Big Game in South Florida isn't the only thing getting Hollywood residents excited this week. Beginning today, residents will be able to save money on groceries, pharmacy costs, sporting goods and much more from local and national retailers thanks to a new rewards-for-recycling program called RecycleBank®.

RecycleBank encourages people to recycle by rewarding households with points for their efforts. These points are redeemable at local and national retailers, restaurants, grocers, and more. RecycleBank services more than one million people across 24 states and in the United Kingdom. By cumulative recycling efforts, members have recycled more than 320,000 tons of material since 2004, saving more than 283 million gallons of oil and 4.24 million trees. In the spirit of the Big Game this Sunday, 320,000 tons is equal to about 2.6 million football players on 49,288 teams. That's a lot of playoffs to lead to one Big Game!

Hollywood is the first city in Broward County to partner with RecycleBank and is the largest city offering the rewards-for-recycling program in Florida. "Hollywood is leading the way in making Broward a greener, more sustainable county," Mayor Bober said. "Partnering with RecycleBank is a way to protect our environment, help the local economy, keep our community clean and provide real savings to Hollywood households that recycle."

"RecycleBank motivates people to engage in greener behaviors through incentives," RecycleBank Southeast Vice President and General Manager Fred Hannon said. "We're excited to further expand in Florida and bring meaningful and valuable rewards to Hollywood families. In other cities, we've helped to double, triple, even quadruple recycling rates. We expect Hollywood to be just as successful."

This past month, close to 32,000 households received new 95 gallon recycling carts outfitted with special tags that connect the address with individual RecycleBank accounts and information on how to set-up their accounts. Beginning today, recycling trucks will read the identification tags during recycling pick up and record the weight of recyclables. RecycleBank will convert that weight into points that can be used to "shop" for rewards from hundreds of businesses in more than 20 categories.

After activating their RecycleBank accounts, Hollywood residents can log on to www.RecycleBank.com or call 1-888-727-2978 to redeem rewards from local reward partners such as Publix, Winn-Dixie, Sage Oyster Bar, Ocean Alley, Cafe Italia, SAS Martini Lounge, Little Bakery, Yoga One Yoga Studio, Dandee Donuts, Vocelli Pizza and many more. Residents can also choose from a host of national partners such as Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Seventh Generation, Burt's Bees, CVS/pharmacy, The Home Depot, Bed Bath & Beyond, and more. There is also an option to donate Points to local school environmental programs through the RecycleBank Green Schools Program. Similar to frequent flier programs, the more a family recycles, the more RecycleBank points each household earns.

"By participating, residents have the ability to earn and redeem RecycleBank points for hundreds of dollars worth of rewards, discounts and merchandise," Mayor Bober added. "With the tough economy, these savings translate into real value for Hollywood families. Plus, it's nice to be rewarded for doing something good."

Hollywood Public Works Director Greg Turek expects the program to reduce Hollywood's waste disposal costs by close to $500,000 this year by diverting tons of waste otherwise destined for landfills. "It's less expensive for Hollywood to keep things out of the waste stream than to put things in," said Turek. "Working together, the City and residents will save money and help save the planet at the same time."

The new program also means a transition to single-stream recycling in the City. This allows all recyclables to go into one cart—no more sorting. The City accepts glass, metal, aluminum, plastic bottles (neck must be smaller than bottle base), and fiber, such as newspapers, magazines, catalogs, phone books, printer paper, mail and cardboard boxes. Also beginning today, Hollywood starts a new recycling pickup schedule. Instead of once weekly pickups, recycling will be collected once every other week on customers' regular trash pickup days. For more information, visit www.HollywoodFL.org.

THE CITY OF HOLLYWOOD

Founded in 1925, the City of Hollywood is a vibrant coastal community located between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Hollywood's population of more than 143,000 residents makes it the 12th largest city in Florida. Within the city's 29 square miles are 6 miles of beaches and Florida's only oceanfront pedestrian promenade, the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk. The City's diversity, innovative problem solving and community spirit have earned it numerous awards including "All-America City 2007," "100 Best Communities for Young People," and "Top Ten Digital City." For more information, visit www.HollywoodFL.org.

RECYCLEBANK

RecycleBank® motivates people to recycle and rewards consumers for taking greener actions with points that can be redeemed from participating local and national business partners. Through collaboration and innovation, RecycleBank is helping to create a culture that encourages people to take simple steps towards greener lifestyles. With new products and services like residential recycling, product reuse, expanded e-waste recycling, responsible disposal or simply focusing on using what already exists in the world today, we believe that making greener choices shouldn't feel at all like a trade off. It should be a trade up, and so RecycleBank rewards you every step of the way. RecycleBank currently provides service to over one million people across the U.S. and the U.K. and has been recognized with a number of business and environmental awards, including being named as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and as a Champion of the Earth by the United Nations Environmental Programme. RecycleBank is headquartered in New York City. For more information, visit www.RecycleBank.com.

SOURCE RecycleBank