[EQAB-list] Proposed Recycling Changes

[Ellen Smith]

I have a reply to one of your questions, based on answers provided to
some of our questions Thursday evening:

On Fri, 2008-08-08 at 16:38 -0400, Fred L Stephens wrote:
> We ran out of discussion time at our EQAB meeting on Thursday evening 
> and there are many questions remaining. These are some of the 
> questions I have.
> 
> 1. Why not reward a household's participation with an annual payback 
> on their household rubbish bill - as opposed to coupons?

Why not? Because that would require actual money.

The "rewards" in the RecycleBank program are generated not by paying
people for the value of the material they recycle, but rather by
soliciting businesses to contribute coupons as a form of advertising.
The program's financing is based primarily on marketing, not on the
financial value of people's recyclables. In many ways, the arrangement
sounds similar to school coupon books.

-- Ellen Smith