New Way to Track Recycling Online

Would competitive recycling inspire more people to recycle?
A Boston company called Greenbean Recycle is trying to make the act of keeping bottles and cans out of the landfill into a fun, competitive and engaging game for students at MIT.

The company has converted a recycling machine on MIT's campus into a point tabulator of sorts. When students approach the high-tech trash can to dump in their recyclables, they punch their phone number on a touch screen. A bar-code reader in the machine counts the number of cans, bottles and the like that the person has dropped off - and then uploads that data to Greenbean's website. The hope is that even non-recyclers may be inspired to do their part and sporadic recyclers to do even more. Read more.

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