Matthew Tucker, the president of RecycleBank, has successfully brought his US-based scheme to England with a launch at the start of the month in the
the Royal Borough of Windor and Maidenhead as reported earlier this month.

Mr Tucker’s scheme, which is used by one million people in the US, gives points for recycling which can be redeemed in national chains or even smaller local shops.



Matthew Tucker talks to EdieTV

The scheme uses the so-called ‘chip and bin’ system to monitor the amount of recycling and Mr Tucker is not concerned by the negative reaction and ‘council bin snoopers’ headlines that accompanied the launch of other schemes involving fines.

He said: “Yes, I’ve seen the national media coverage of chip and bin when it was launched, but I don’t think this will be seen as negative as the system rewards people and does not fine them.

“It’s a scheme that’s very suited to the British, and is not the traditional American way, in fact if we were starting again I would think seriously about launching in the UK first.

“We plan on rolling out to dozens of councils in the next 18 months, we hope to serve a couple of hundred thousand households here in England by the end of 2010.”

Luke Walsh

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