If you have points saved in the Streets Department and Recyclebank’s program Philacycle, make sure to use of them by the end of the month. The popular recycling rewards program will be discontinued on June 30, according to an announcement by Streets Commissioner Carlton Williams. The Streets Department can no longer afford the rewards program in the current market due to increased recycling costs.

Effective June 30, 2019, Philadelphia residents that participated in the rewards program will no longer be able to earn reward points and access the Philacycle website. Points are redeemable at Philacycle.com. Residents are strongly encouraged to redeem those points as soon as possible as there is a limit on availability of some items. 

When this recycling rewards program first launched, the City of Philadelphia was being paid to process recyclable materials. The revenue generated allowed the City to reward residents with discounts from local businesses redeemable as points. However, the recycling market has drastically changed in recent years. With new regulatory standards on contaminated materials, recycling costs have risen to $10 million a year, making this rewards program unaffordable.

Despite the discontinuation of the recycling awards program, residents are strongly encouraged to continue recycling. Recycling is still very important in the city, but residents are asked to do it the right way to reduce recycling contamination. To help reduce contamination, residents are asked to not place non-recyclable material in the bin and make sure the materials are dry and clean when set out.

The City has launched a new educational campaign with simple messaging to educate residents on how to recycle. The new campaigns titled: “Take A Minute Before You Bin It and When In Doubt, Throw It Out” can be found on the Streets Department website at philadelphiastreets.com/recycling.