Residents then get monthly statements showing how much they earned - $5 in coupons for every 10 pounds of recycling. They would then order coupons that are good at dozens of stores, from small merchants on Germantown Avenue to ShopRite.
Supporters say the incentive approach represents the next big step in a movement that began in the 1970s. Among the potential benefits: The city saves on landfill disposal fees (now $54 a ton), creates jobs, and can market itself as a socially responsible place to do business.
"It's revolutionary," said city recycling coordinator David Robinson, who works for the Streets Department. "We are so excited."
The idea came from two entrepreneurs whose company is named RecycleBank, and is based in Blue Bell. Patrick K. Fitzgerald and Ron Gonen grew tired of high-flying jobs in Manhattan and decided to come home to the Philadelphia area, where they first met as ninth-grade science partners at Germantown Academy.
Other cities expressed interest in their pay-for-recycling idea, including New York, but Gonen and Fitzgerald wanted their hometown to have first crack. The pilot program will last six months, after which they hope the city will allow them to take it citywide.
Besides civic pride, Gonen said, there is another reason for sticking with Philadelphia: If they can make it work here, they can do it anywhere.
The city's residential recycling rate is generally about 6 percent - 50,000 tons a year is recycled, while about 800,000 tons is sent to landfills. The annual cost of disposal is in the tens of millions of dollars.
It is difficult to compare Philadelphia's recycling rate with those of other big cities, because each has its own way of measuring performance. Some cities include yard waste; others get higher numbers by including heavy items, such as discarded appliances, in their recycling totals.
