On Good Morning America, Sam, the Weatherman, does a feature called "Just One Thing". This feature gives ideas on making our earth greener. The feature this week had to do with recycling. I really thought it was a great idea and that maybe West Allis's city fathers could take a look at it. Right now, its predominately on the east coast, but who's to say they couldn't come to the Midwest. This new to me idea is called RecycleBank.com. Their website is www.recyclebank.com  Check it out.

As the recycle system here in West Allis works now, newspapers go into paper bags and the other recyclables must go into the blue bags. Using the RecycleBank system, all the recyclables go into a city supplied container. These containers have a Radio Frequency ID chip in each one that is connected to a card. All recyclables go into the container. When its picked up, the truck scans the chip, the contents are weighed and accredited to the owners card. Their website did NOT give the initial cost for the special containers or the cost for the special equipment on the pick up trucks.

Now, here's where it gets good. The whole premise of this is to encourage more recycling. So, everyone who participates gets 2.5 Recycle Points for each pound of goods. Your Recycle Points check arrives at your home approximately once a month I believe. These points can be redeemed for merchandise at various stores, like Sears, CVS Pharmacy, Petco, Target and Footlocker among others. I've also heard Starbucks is one participating merchant too.

This company also recycles Ewaste, like MP3 players, cell phones, I-pods and laptops.

Are there any thoughts on a system like this for West Allis? Would it encourage you to recycle more?