Every Sunday night I drag our big, blue recycle bin to the curb for an early Monday morning pick up. At first, when I moved to Phoenix--and had to recycle--I thought it would be incredibly inconvenient...adding more steps to my already busy lifestyle. Since we have a "mandatory, voluntary, recycling program", (don't laugh..that's what the flyer said), I reluctantly joined the march with all my fellow tree huggers here in the desert.

Since we had to separate our regular garbage from the recyclable items, I bought another garbage can for the kitchen, and taught the kids how to recycle. Amazingly, they both told me that they were already doing this at school, and educated me when I misspoke. Go figure! Since then, I've jumped onto the bandwagon, and--being the coupon queen--quickly did some research on how I could possibly make money or get something out of this for my effort.

Guess what? I found a website called RecycleBank. They actually pay you to haul that big blue thing to the curb every week. Can you believe that? Stunned, I read on about how they track what you throw away.

RecycleBank places an RFID bar code/chip on the outside of the bin. When the truck scans the code, it also weighs the bin and records the weight to your account. The weight translates into points, which you can then cash in for either gift cards or coupons. The more you recycle, the higher the weight, thus the more points you accumulate in the program. You're getting paid to push your bin the curb every week...currently at a rate of 2.5 points per pound. If you're trashy, they max you out at 450 points/month. Amazing program, if you ask me.

Currently, the company partners with Acme (for groceries), Bed, Bath & Beyond, CVS Pharmacy, PetCo, Sears, Target, and a few others. I'm sure they're adding more stores on a consistent basis (as more and more companies are joining the green movement.)

Because this is a new program, RecycleBank is only offered in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Virginia. However, you can go to their site, and enter your address..they will notify you when they expand to your neighborhood. You can also call your private hauler or municipality--tell them that you'd like to have this service added to your area. Don't underestimate the power of persuasion and referrals...look what it did to Facebook, Twitter and MySpace!  In the meantime, it appears I'll still be pushing that can to the curb for free, but I definitely look forward to the day when RecycleBank comes to my neighborhood!