Cherry Hill offers proof that recycling pays

Lori Braunstein hopes to put Cherry Hill on the map.

Not for its sprawl of retail temples or its many luxury-car dealerships. For its eco-consciousness.

"Cherry Hill wouldn't be the first town you think of as a leader in environmental issues, but we really can be," said Braunstein, who leads a fledgling environmental group in town.

"It's a very consumer-driven, affluent community. We don't want to make people feel bad about that, but we want to help people gradually change their behavior."

Last month, Cherry Hill adopted a 10-point Green Action Plan that combines the use of renewable energy, conservation and recycling incentives. The township plans to integrate hybrid vehicles into its fleet, install solar panels on town hall, and conduct an energy audit and carbon-footprint calculation.

The highest-profile piece is the recycling program. Cherry Hill has teamed up with RecycleBank, a Philadelphia firm that offers residents gift certificates for reducing the trash they send to landfills.

RecycleBank, launched in 2004 by two Philadelphia natives, serves more than 100,000 homes in seven states, including 25 towns in Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey. It secured $30 million in venture capital funding recently, and it is in talks with Chicago and Atlanta, officials said.

The company gives households large, lidded containers that a computer-equipped truck with a mechanical arm picks up weekly. After scanning an embedded bar code, the truck computes the container's weight. Based on how much they recycle, residents accrue credits toward certificates for use at local businesses or larger outlets such as Ikea, Acme and Starbucks.

The retail partners get free advertising and burnish their images as being environmentally conscious, say RecycleBank officials, who report that more than $1 million in certificates were redeemed last year.

Cherry Hill estimates that the program will save $2 million in landfill fees and other expenses over five years. Already, the township says, the volume of recycled material has doubled in neighborhoods that RecycleBank serves. The program - now used by 900 households, beginning last month - is expected to go townshipwide in a few months.

Cherry Hill will pay RecycleBank about $400,000 annually. RecycleBank paid for the technology and containers, and Republic Services, the town's trash hauler, picked up the tab to retrofit its truck as a way to capture future business, township officials said.

Lea Arbely, an artist and a mother in Cherry Hill, said she was enthusiastic about the program, which allows participants to mix paper, plastic, metal and glass recyclables.

"Before, I was recycling only food items and feeling guilty," said Arbely, of the Knollwood section. "Now you can put everything in there. We have a lot less trash."

Arbely checks her online RecycleBank profile periodically. The company tells customers how many trees they have saved and how much crude oil they have preserved. It also allows them to contribute their rewards to charity. Arbely said she donated the equivalent of $2 to $10 a week to a local school.

Standing in front of his Knollwood Drive home as the recycling truck made its way down his street, Joe Bonitatis lauded the new service.

He doesn't care about rewards, he said. But he does care about a block that looks neater than it did when smaller, open recycling cans allowed trash to blow everywhere, and when the need to separate materials meant things that could have been recycled often weren't.

"I would imagine all the townships will go to this," Bonitatis said.

Joe Abate, chair of the environmental commission in Clayton, helped bring RecycleBank to that Gloucester County town in 2006. The program has saved the township money in landfill fees and heightened environmental awareness among residents, he said.

And there's another payoff, Abate said: Streets are cleaner.

"People know that recycling pays, literally. So instead of throwing something out the window when they're driving, they take it home and throw it in their recycling bin," he said.

Tina Leck of George Leck & Son Inc., a trash hauler that operates primarily in Bucks County, said her company went with RecycleBank a year ago. Within a few months it needed to buy an additional truck.

Leck estimated that recycling had doubled at houses where RecycleBank was available.

"It's a win for our customers, the environment, the businesses, and for us," said Leck, whose main service area is Newtown Borough, Newtown Township, Yardley, New Hope and Wrightstown.

Braunstein, who leads Sustainable Cherry Hill, the new environmental group, was among a group of residents who last year approached Mayor Bernie Platt, hoping to persuade him to sign the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

"We were prepared, sort of, to put up a little bit of a fight," Braunstein said. "Just given the culture of government."

But Platt, to whom the environment is an important cause, had already signed it. When the residents went a step further, asking to help craft strategies to make the township eco-conscious, the response was, "Where have you guys been all this time?" Braunstein said.

For eight months, township officials and the group researched clean energy and solar panels, recycling and tree-planting. Their Green Action Plan received the immediate endorsement of the Township Council.

Braunstein said she was optimistic this was just the beginning.

"If everybody does small things, in a community of 70,000 people, it can add up to a large change," she said.

In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where recycling is mandatory, RecycleBank serves 25 municipalities.

Pennsylvania

Hatfield

Ivyland

Lansdale

Lower Gwynedd

Lower Makefield

Montgomery

New Britain Borough

New Britain Township

Newtown Borough

Newtown Township

North Wales

Philadelphia

Solebury

Thornbury

Upper Darby

Upper Makefield

Wrightstown

Yardley

New Jersey

Cherry Hill       Swedesboro

Clayton          Westville

Elk             Woolwich

Glassboro

EndText