Easton Will Launch New Recycling Program

During his first stint as Easton's mayor in the late 1980s, Sal Panto went around to the city's elementary schools to spread the gospel of recycling.

His message may not have stuck. Recycling in Easton isn't what it used to be.

"It upsets me to see so many people who have garbage out, but not recycling," Panto said. "They're recycling less than they were 20 years ago, and that's not fair."

With that in mind, the city has begun a campaign to increase the number of people recycling.

Its key component: working with a Philadelphia-based company called Recyclebank on a program that offers rewards to people for recycling.

At a news conference Thursday, Panto -- joined by Recylebank's Bob Milligan -- explained how it would work:

People put out their recyclable materials in the traditional blue bins, which would be given a bar code, assuming they want to participate in the Recyclebank program. That bar code gets scanned. For every pound of recyclable material you put out, you get points. Those points can be redeemed for "rewards."

It's not that you'd get money back, exactly. But the points would give you discounts on different consumer products.

If approved by City Council, the Recylebank program would begin Oct. 1 of this year.  Panto said Easton's Environmental Advisory Council and city council's Public Works Committee will first investigate the program.

At first, it will only be open to the 7,500 households the city currently collects from, but the goal is to ultimately get more people recycling, and fewer people throwing away recyclable materials.

If this works out, said Dave Hopkins, the city's public works director, Easton will be at a better position to negotiate when its garbage contract is up in two years.

Panto said the city also hopes to switch to a "single-stream" recycling system, which would allow people to put all their materials into one bin.

Over the next few months, Recyclebank will begin rolling out the program in the city in time for October. And Panto says he'll be going back to the city's three elementary schools this fall, trying to convince a new generation to go home and tell their parents to recycle.