One of the green cornerstones of building a more sustainable Cherry Hill is reducing the Township's waste and increasing the overall recycling rate. While Cherry Hill is currently the No. recycler in Camden County, the goal is to become the No. 1 recycler in the state

Last year, 950 homes in the Knollwood area of the township took part in a pilot for an innovative new program called RecycleBank. Mayor Bernie Platt and his colleagues believed that if the six-month pilot was successful, it could be the key to significantly boosting Cherry Hill's already healthy recycling tonnage. While everyone had high hopes for the program, the numbers were still astonishing - the recycling rate in Knollwood shot up more than 90 percent!

The reasons for the program's success are obvious - it offers recyclers rewards and convenience. RecycleBank's single-stream processing means there is no need to separate paper from aluminum cans, glass and plastic. All recycled materials are placed in a cart equipped with a microchip that contain the homeowner's information, including a RecycleBank online account number. Collection trucks equipped with special computers scan the barcode, calculate the weight of the recycled material, store the information in a databank, then credit the home with "RecycleBank Dollars." The amount of materials recycled is then converted into reward dollars that can be used at hundreds of local and national reward-partners, such as IKEA, Dick's Sporting Goods, ShopRite and even Cherry Hill Pizza.

Platt and the township's elected body have declared RecycleBank an undeniable success. On average, pilot residents removed more than 10 additional pounds of trash per week from their waste stream, placing them in the municipal recycling stream instead. At a landmark Town Council meeting in March, the town-wide roll-out of RecycleBank was approved as part of an aggressive 10-point Green Action Plan - the same initiative that created Sustainable Cherry Hill.

As such, the two entities are intrinsically linked, and SCH whole-heartedly supports the implementation of RecycleBank in every household. Reducing our collective carbon footprint by diverting significant amounts of waste from landfills is one of the avenues we must travel on the path to sustainability. Our partnership with RecycleBank is making that journey a lot easier.

For more information on RecycleBank, visit the company's Web site at Recycle Bank