People like to say they're going to recycle. They get excited about it, and cities, realizing there is, in fact, money to be made, get excited too. But then, something happens. It just seems so inconvenient to walk all the way across the room to put that can in a separate bin. In the end, recycling trucks end up driving around half empty, wasting more gas than their saving.

So, if there's money to be made, why not see that you, the recycler gets a piece of the action, instead of basing the system solely on the guilt consumers feel. By putting RFID tags in recycling bins and having the waste collectors weigh the bins, a new start-up, Recycle Bank, calculates who actually recycles, and can thus grant those people rewards.
Now, they don't actually get paid, they just get free stuff from cool companies.

 

Whole foods, Starbucks and Bed Bat and Beyond are all in on the deal, providing free stuff to good recyclers. You can even track how much you're recycling online. The companies are happy to get their name attatched to a cool cause, the city saves money on landfills, and the recyclers get free stuff. In the end, Recycle bank is able to charge the city less than the city saves, and everyone comes away with more money in their pocket. Genius.

Via Sustainablog and Forbes