Ann Arbor officials give RecycleBank rewards program another chance to prove its worth
A company that Ann Arbor contracts with to run a rewards program encouraging city residents to recycle will have another chance to prove its worth.
Following debate in recent months over whether to terminate the city's contract with New York-based RecycleBank, the Ann Arbor City Council voted Monday night in favor of a plan that both reduces the city's costs and gives the company added incentives to boost recycling.
"I'm delighted that staff has brought it to our attention and worked closely with the company to create it," Council Member Christopher Taylor, D-3rd Ward, said of the plan.
Atul Nanda, general manager and vice president of operations for RecycleBank’s Midwest region, appeared before the City Council Monday night.
Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com
Council members voted unanimously to direct city staff to negotiate a revised contract with RecycleBank that immediately reduces the city's costs from $150,000 to $100,000 per year.
RecycleBank will have a chance to earn some or all of that money back by boosting recycling behavior among Ann Arbor residents.
The council directed staff to write up new contract language offering RecycleBank a $50 per-ton incentive for any city recycling tonnages collected over and above what was collected in the last fiscal year that ended June 30.
Council members said they hope the introduction of a new tonnage-based payment plan will provide an incentive for RecycleBank to increase recycling rates, which is the goal of the program.
The council decided to cap total annual payments at $150,000, so RecycleBank can't earn more money than it's already making if there's a significant increase in recycling.
The RecycleBank program came on the chopping block in July after council members were presented with information showing the city's new single-stream recycling system wasn't working out quite as planned. While recycling had increased 20 percent from the year before, the total tonnages collected were still 40 percent below expectations.
Concerned that was negatively impacting the budget of Recycle Ann Arbor, the nonprofit organization responsible for curbside collection of recycling carts in the city, the City Council voted unanimously last month to boost payments to Recycle Ann Arbor by about $107,000 annually. At the time, some council members said they wanted to offset that added cost by pulling the plug on RecycleBank, a program they're still not convinced is effective.
The resolution approved Monday nights states that there has been no direct evidence showing the impact of the RecycleBank incentive program on recycling rates in Ann Arbor. It also states much of the increase in recycling rates is likely due to the introduction of new recycling carts and the city's new single-stream recycling program.
RecycleBank operates rewards programs in more than 300 communities across the country, including three cities in Michigan. It was rolled out in Ann Arbor on Sept. 1, 2010, two months after the city switched to a new single-stream recycling system.
RecycleBank rewards residents with points that are redeemable at retail outlets and restaurants. A company representative said in July that the program had encouraged more than $240,000 in spending at local businesses through rewards coupons, which helped residents in Ann Arbor save about $80,000 on purchases.
"They are going to want to go out and push as hard as they can to get people participating and get the tonnages up, so we'll see if they can produce results," said Tom McMurtrie, the city's solid waste coordinator.
Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com
McMurtrie said RecycleBank has done a similar per-ton incentive program in other communities where it operates rewards programs.
"It provides them an incentive to increase the program and it's a real win-win for both the community and for RecycleBank," he said. "They are going to want to go out and push as hard as they can to get people participating and get the tonnages up, so we'll see if they can produce results."
McMurtrie said Ann Arbor residents won't really notice any changes in the recycling rewards program. From a user standpoint, he said, it'll still work the same as before.
Asked how exactly RecycleBank plans to increase recycling rates, McMurtrie said he assumes it will be through more promotion and broader outreach. He said he hasn't had any discussions with the company about whether it would try to increase the rewards offered.
The council passed up another option proposed by staff Monday night in which the city would have experimented with eliminating the RecycleBank program from one of the city's collection days for six months, and then would have compared the recycling rates with the city's other four collection days. McMurtrie said the city still plans to revisit and evaluate the RecycleBank program in the spring.
Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529. You also can follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's e-mail newsletters.
Comments
Mike
Wed, Sep 21, 2011 : 12:54 p.m.
Hoping for a different outcome and trying to "force" the way it should be is the progressive mindset. If people don't want it they just need "more explaination of why they should" or they need to be incentivized or punished into doing it for their own good. Look at health care, global warming (now climate change, soon to be global cooling), recent NLRB rules put into place, EPA mandates and fines, OSHA mandates and fines, no drilling for oil in our country (we'll import from Canada or Brazil), stopping for pedestrians or fines, narrowing Stadium Blvd to create traffic jams - why?, building bikes bridges when or car bridges are failing, bike paths when we alreday have one across the street in a state you can't bike year round, "egregious" idling laws and penalties, raising taxes instead of spending cuts, union set asides in the "stimulus" while the 87% of us who are non-union pay for it. Need more examples?
Walid Yassir
Wed, Sep 21, 2011 : 12:27 a.m.
The strange thing here is that we are a town that understands the value of recycling. The only thing that limits my recycling is the size of my bin. Instead of throwing money at a company that gives you coupons that are in many cases worthless (actually less than worthless, because many of them are inducements to spend money that you otherwise might not have), the city likely would have been able to increase its recycling simply by asking if anyone wanted a larger or additional bin. Granted, I am a small sample size, but no amount of coupon is going to accomplish what a larger receptacle would. I could increase my recycling by 50% easily with a second bin. Instead, I hoard cardboard until I can get it together to get someone to recycle it.
Long Time No See
Thu, Sep 22, 2011 : 5:50 a.m.
Do you already have a 96 gallon cart? If not, you *can* get a bigger cart: <a href="http://www.recycleannarbor.org/?module=Page&sID=single-family-residencies" rel='nofollow'>http://www.recycleannarbor.org/?module=Page&sID=single-family-residencies</a> "Recyclables are collected in 64-gallon wheeled carts. Recycling carts are also available in 32-gallon and 96-gallon sizes."
CincoDeMayo
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 10:02 p.m.
Why? Why does the city want to waste our money instead of funding services that we need???
deb
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 7:08 p.m.
The council used almost the exact same amount of money to bail out ann arbor recycle as it saved by eliminating on street leaf pick-up. This is just an example of how the city provides less services while spending the same amount of money.
Kevin McGuinness
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 7:05 p.m.
Here is a better less costly idea. Collect recycle containers once per month. Collect normal waste every two weeks. This saves money and probabaly forece people to recycle rather than bribing the people who are not resppnsible to do the right thing.
Long Time No See
Thu, Sep 22, 2011 : 5:47 a.m.
Sorry Cinco, I was replying to KM before fully reading your reply. Obviously, I agree with your suggestion! :)
Long Time No See
Thu, Sep 22, 2011 : 5:45 a.m.
I fill up my recycling cart much more rapidly than I fill up my garbage cart, so your proposal doesn't appeal to me. However, I probably put my carts out only once every three weeks, on average, so how about we just have trash & recycling pickups every other week and cut some of our costs in half?
CincoDeMayo
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 10 p.m.
If garbage pickup were more frequent than recycle pickup, I think it would unfortunately encourage people to throw recyclables in the garbage. Recycle and garbage pickup should occur at the same rate. I do believe pickup could be reduced to every two weeks, though. If my large family only needs pickup to be once every two weeks, I can't imagine others really need it more frequently.
say it plain
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 5:43 p.m.
Wait-- We *Really* let RecycleBank initially convince us to pay them according to a model that includes *no* incentive for them to increase recycling rates?! The article says "many" of the other communities who buy the sucker-story of RecycleBank already use a tonnage-based payment plan... exactly *how* many don't?! It would be sad, but interestingly telling!, if we were the only ones who didn't at the very least require this parasite organization to *do* something to earn their money!!
Carolyn
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 5:42 p.m.
I have found NOTHING of significant value from the Rewards Program EXCEPT for the coupons that allow me enter the Recycle Center on Ellsworth for free. The rest of the offers are very similar to the ones that I can clip out of the unwanted AnnArbor.com newspaper that I receive on my driveway every Thursday.
MyOpinion
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 4:43 p.m.
What a disappointment . And a unanimous vote??? There's a lot we could spend/waste that money on. I'm betting most folks would vote for leaf recycling. At least then there would be a connection between the money and labor. What a joke.
Long Time No See
Thu, Sep 22, 2011 : 5:41 a.m.
Rob, I'm pretty sure it's "leaves" However, I do agree with you. I don't want to see the return of the old leaf pick-up method.
Sparty
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 5:42 p.m.
Leafs are picked up --- put them in the brown compost bin or paper bags, so no need to spend any additional money on that non-critical item!
A2since74
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 3:12 p.m.
I have not tried using Recycle Awards. Too complicated.
xmo
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 1:56 p.m.
The "GREEN GOAL" was to save the planet by REDUCING the amount of trash put into land fills but what is the goal of this program ""They are going to want to go out and push as hard as they can to get people participating and get the tonnages up, so we'll see if they can produce results."" So, we have to create more trash to recycle to that this works? What about the Planet? One more Progressive idea that is a failure and a RESUME ENHANCEMENT for our City Council!
hut hut
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 3:04 p.m.
I've never heard you advocate for the PLANET before. All that stuff is just LIBERAL PROGRESSIVE job killing over-regualtion claptrap. I thought for sure you'd advocate for free markets and consume consume consume because consumer capitalism is good for the economy regardless of the long term costs like landfills, pollution and the race to the bottom in jobs, wages and our standard of living.
racerx
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 1:41 p.m.
If the RecylceBank was able to reduce costs by $50K, then it was over valued in the first place. If they've done this in other cities and now in Ann Arbor, then it appears that there is a built-in mechanism for them to trigger this component once opposition arises. And now RecylceBank will attempt to broaden its approach by outreaching more to the community. This seems like a far reach. If they had any incentive to do this from the beginning to make this program work, then why wasn't this implemented at the beginning of the contract? The community is only going to recycle so much, as evident by the current recycling rates and with the changes that have occurred already with the recycling station this will keep those rates stagnant. Even council acknowledges that there is no direct evidence that the rewards program, that they're paying $100K for, has an effect on recycling! I'd also would be suspect at the figures that this company flaunts of "encouraging" $240K in spending, and saved residents $80K. Is there any proof of this? Has council asked those local businesses about the rate of traffic or revenue streams from this program? Or, as I suspect, are they just listening to (as usual) only one source? With other priority spending on basic and essential city services, this pipe dream of using tax payer funds to encourage people to recycle through this program should be abandon. Provide basic city services when times are hard and seek these personal endeavors when times are flush. This is like an unemployed person buying a Cadillac on their unemployment assistance when a Chevy would get them around just the same.
Z-man
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 5:31 p.m.
Of course there's no proof that the company "encouraged" $240K in spending. They may very well have given out coupons worth $80K that averaged 33% off the regular price, but it's ridiculous to presume that the spending wouldn't have occurred anyway without the discount coupons. This is no different than the silly Cash For Clunkers program that gave incentives to people to send their old cars to the crusher and buy new vehicles to boost Obama Motors. Sales increased while the program was in effect and then crashed as soon as it expired because it encouraged negligible incremental sales, but only served to pull some trade-ins forward for those people who were planning on buying a new car anyway.
HPD
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 1:40 p.m.
I applaud counsel for an effort in the right direction. I hope the company starts considering the context of its offers relative to others in our market. Groupon, Livingsocial.com, Real Deal, and offers from local merchants are generally better than what Recyclebank provides. For citizens interested in "deals" Recyclebank is not reaching a level that would be "incentive." I hope they increase the value of their offerings, so we can see that incentives can bring more residents to recycle regularly.
5c0++ H4d13y
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 1:35 p.m.
I still don't get why we are paying a company to market stuff to us. I don't pay Groupon to market stuff to me. I don't pay for Facebook or Google. They are ad supported. RecycleBank is a marketing tool wrapped around municipal recycling. Let them make their money from the marketing effort and not the tax payers.
Long Time No See
Thu, Sep 22, 2011 : 5:36 a.m.
This is a significant mystery to me as well. Why are we using tax dollars to subsidize marketing campaigns that are aimed at ourselves?
JSA
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 12:51 p.m.
It appears obvious that the fix was in place from the beginning. The rest is just window dressing.
tommy_t
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 12:44 p.m.
Why don't you recycle my leaves for the 100k instead of a wondrous program that does nothing but waste my tax money? I know I will be recycling some local politicians at the next election and that will be my contribution to responsible city programs.
5c0++ H4d13y
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 7:01 p.m.
@Rob No chance in hell my compost bin can take care of all my leaves every year.
Sparty
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 5:39 p.m.
Leaves are composted --- put them in your compost bin or paper bags each week, all at no charge. See, $100,000 saved.
David Paris
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 12:31 p.m.
I want to recycle, and functionally this program beats the pants off the old bucket system. I think that this new compromise should balance out the cost/benefit equation for most involved.
workingman
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 12:04 p.m.
What a worthless program. There is no direct correlation between my recycling and the points I get - and the points add up as a coupon/advertising program. If I save up my points for a couple of years I get $10 gift certificate for something. I get the same incentive whether I recycle a lot or a practically none at all. Let's face it, this is a zero-impact program when in comes to inducing folks to recycle more. I'd much rather see the city keep the money & use it for more effective purposes.
hut hut
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : noon
I wonder how much trash, junk and recyclables are produced by the "goodies" one can get from RecycleBank program? Burger boxes and wrappers?
Lets Get Real
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 11:31 a.m.
Let's Get Real here - Ann Arbor must be known around the country by companies with a gimmick as the sucker capital of the world. A seat of educational excellence, with creative and innovative thinkers, we consistently bring in outsiders to handle our problems rather that create our own solutions. The Library Lot Conference Center - an outside company; the concrete company that does the sidewalks - an outside company, even the Ann Arbor Chamber paid to bring in an outside marketing company last year to run the membership campaign. How'd that work out? The arrogance of Ann Arbor is thinking they can buy solutions that will work here, when what we really need are engaged citizen experts who know this town and want to foster economic growth here. The goal should not seek national stage awards and self-serving importance. Servant Leadership isn't lazy - it is hard work done by committed residents working in a collaborative, cooperative environment who believe in Ann Arbor and the surrounding region want it to be the hidden gem not a well know joke who will buy a pig in the poke.
Chip Reed
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 11:25 a.m.
This is wrong in so many ways...
Brian Kuehn
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 11:24 a.m.
It is hard to imagine how Recycle Bank is going to increase recycling rates. The fact that they have not announced any specific plans seems to indicate that they do not have any ideas either. Hoping for an outcome is not really a plan. Meanwhile, we continue to pay them $100,000 a month while they award us $5 gift cards to Starbucks and iTunes. My sense is that a year from now our wallets are going to be $1,200,000 tax dollars lighter with little discernable change in our recycling habits and we will have this same debate again.
Brian Kuehn
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 7:04 p.m.
I stand corrected. It is $100,000 per year. My bad.
Eric
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 1:43 p.m.
It's $100,000 a year, not month.
Jeff Gaynor
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 10:46 a.m.
When RecycleBank started in Ann Arbor, I thought they were paying the city, not the other way around.
Macabre Sunset
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 10:25 a.m.
Don't be surprised, Alan. After all, the mayor is very, very cozy with this company. One hand washes the other (with recycled water, of course).
Bonsai
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 8:02 p.m.
got any evidence mac or just throwing bombs?
Alan Goldsmith
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 10:16 a.m.
"The resolution approved Monday nights states that there has been no direct evidence showing the impact of the RecycleBank incentive program on recycling rates in Ann Arbor." Wow. Another unanimous vote of City Council to toss tax dollars away so I can get coupons for DIet Coke and Big Macs.