Helena Becomes First City in Alabama to Reward Residents for Recycling, Aims to Promote Sustainability by Increasing Recycling Participation BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Feb. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Residents in Helena now have an incentive to go green. Through a new program offered by Allied Waste Services of Birmingham, Helena residents will receive valuable rewards for recycling with RecycleBank®. The program begins today, and Allied Waste expects to have 10,000 households enrolled in the program by this summer and possibly expand throughout Shelby County. Helena is the first city in Alabama to offer RecycleBank. Allied Waste, a Republic Services Group (NYSE:RSG) company, has a record of accomplishment in partnering with RecycleBank in other communities throughout the country, including metropolitan Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.; Cleveland, Ohio; and western Massachusetts. RecycleBank encourages people to recycle by rewarding households with points for their efforts. These points are redeemable at local and national retailers, restaurants, grocers, and more. "RecycleBank provides Helena citizens with an incentive to recycle," Allied Waste Municipal Marketing Manager Eric Kolb said. "The effort spent recycling literally provides more value back to our customers with reward points to purchase products and services they need." In December, Allied Waste distributed 95-gal. recycling carts to Helena residents and began picking up recyclables in January. The carts are equipped with special tags that connect the address with individual RecycleBank accounts. Beginning today, Allied Waste trucks will read the identification tags during recycling pick up and record the weight of recyclables. RecycleBank will convert that weight into points that can be used to "shop" for rewards from hundreds of businesses in more than 20 categories, including Automotive, Beauty and Health, Beverages, Entertainment, Food and Grocery, Restaurants, and Sports and Recreation. "As RecycleBank continues to expand across the United States, our vision of rewarding households for recycling is becoming a reality," RecycleBank Co-founder and CEO Ron Gonen said. "Allied Waste Services of Birmingham recognized the value that RecycleBank brings to communities, putting savings in residents' pockets and invigorating the local business community." After signing up with RecycleBank, Helena residents can log on to http://www.recyclebank.com/ or call 1-888-727-2978 to redeem rewards from local reward partners such as Petco, Crazy Lady Cakes, Helena Fitness, Gus's Hot Dogs, Frankies Market Cafe, and many more. Residents can also choose from a host of national partners such as Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, CVS/pharmacy, The Home Depot, Bed Bath & Beyond, and more. There is also an option to convert points to donations to local school environmental programs through the RecycleBank Green Schools Program and to efforts in Haiti. Similar to frequent flier programs, the more a family recycles, the more RecycleBank points each household earns. "By participating, residents have the ability to earn and redeem RecycleBank points for hundreds of dollars worth of rewards, discounts and merchandise," Kolb added. "With the tough economy, these savings translate into real value for Helena families. Plus, it's nice to be rewarded for doing something good." The new program also brings with it single-stream recycling, which allows all recyclables to go into one cart no more sorting. Allied Waste accepts plastics 1-3, plastic milk and detergent jugs, steel and aluminum cans, newspaper, cardboard, boxes and paper products. Helena residents must sign up for the program and activate their RecycleBank account to receive rewards for recycling. They can do so by contacting Allied Waste Services at 205-923-1650 or simply e-mail . RecycleBank services more than one million people across 24 states and the United Kingdom. By cumulative recycling efforts, those households have recycled more than 320,000 tons of material, saving more than 283 million gallons of oil and 4.24 million trees. For more information on RecycleBank, visit http://www.recyclebank.com/. ALLIED WASTE SERVICES OF BIRMINGHAM Allied Waste merged with Republic Services, Inc., in 2008, forming America's second largest non-hazardous solid waste services company and an environmental leader. Republic Services provides waste collection, transfer, recycling and disposal services to millions of residential, commercial and industrial customers in 40 states and Puerto Rico through its 400 collection companies. Republic Services owns or operates 242 transfer stations, 213 solid waste landfills and 78 recycling facilities. The company is headquartered in Phoenix, Ariz., and has 34,000 employees. For more information, visit the Republic Services web site at http://www.republicservices.com/. RECYCLEBANK RecycleBank® motivates people to recycle and rewards consumers for taking greener actions with points that can be redeemed from participating local and national business partners. Through collaboration and innovation, RecycleBank is helping to create a culture that encourages people to take simple steps towards greener lifestyles. With new products and services like residential recycling, product reuse, expanded e-waste recycling, responsible disposal or simply focusing on using what already exists in the world today, we believe that making greener choices shouldn't feel at all like a trade off. It should be a trade up, and so RecycleBank rewards you every step of the way. RecycleBank currently provides service to over one million people across the U.S. and the U.K. and has been recognized with a number of business and environmental awards, including being named as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and as a Champion of the Earth by the United Nations Environmental Programme. RecycleBank is headquartered in New York City. For more information, visit http://www.recyclebank.com/. DATASOURCE: RecycleBank CONTACT: Melody Serafino, Group SJR +1-646-833-0206, , for RecycleBank Web Site: http://www.recyclebank.com/

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