GreenMoney To Get Randwick Recycling!

By Laura Terrance on August 3, 2011 in News

We should all know what our yellow-lidded bin is for. Do you make a conscious effort to recycle your soft drink cans, pizza boxes and milk cartons?

Unfortunately, some people don’t make this small effort and their yellow-lidded bin just sits in the garage year in, year out.

And many of those who are recycling don’t even understand how beneficial their behaviors are.

GreenMoney is an Australian first project designed to reward people for their recycling whilst educating them about our environment.

The company responsible for GreenMoney is at the forefront of the fight to combat the landfill crisis. They are passionate about changing our behaviors to ultimately create a sustainable environment.

Just as important, GreenMoney aims to recognise the efforts or those who are recycling.

According to the managing director of the scheme, David Catolovski, “the platform will engage with households on a daily basis in order to encourage them to move towards more sustainable lifestyles, whilst offering financial rewards for their green actions.”

Sydney’s current landfill statistics predict a bleak future, especially for our younger generation.

The minds behind GreenMoney have predicted that Sydney will run out of landfill space by 2016 if our current behaviours continue. Then we will need to find a new place to dump our waste.

Alarms bells should now be ringing loudly. We are only four years away from a local landfill crisis, which clearly indicates that our current careless behaviour has to stop now.

Landfill is expensive for our councils, and the costs are passed on to us. Sydney councils pay approximately $70 per tonne of rubbish to the State Government. This price will increase if we then have to transfer rubbish further afield.

This is money that could be much better spent within our local community.

Randwick Mayor Murray Matson estimates that “about 9% of the 30,000 tonnes of general rubbish we collect each year could also be recycled”.

That is an extra 2700 tonnes of recyclable material, which could potentially save Randwick City Council $400,000 a year.

The GreenMoney scheme will work by measuring yellow bins from each household in Randwick City Council and converting each kilogram of recyclables into GreenMoney rewards points. Each kilogram is worth $1.

Once you have registered to be a part of the scheme your rewards points will give you exclusive savings at local businesses in the area that have partnered up with GreenMoney.

Thus far, local businesses including Balzac, Sushi Fusion, Blooms Pharmacy, By San Sebastian, Janina’s Florist and FruitKick have all partnered up with GreenMoney to do their part to kick-start this project and encourage people to take green steps and change their behavior.

These businesses should be congratulated for taking responsibility for their local environment.

The team behind GreenMoney believes positive reinforcement and rewards are a more productive way of changing behavior rather than penalising people with a tax.

The scheme is expected to start a 12-month pilot project in September. If you’re located within the Randwick City Council area please register to be a part of this innovative and rewarding program. Visit the www.mygreenmoney.com.au to learn more.

There is no excuse to throw your recyclables in the general waste bin anymore.