The deal on April 25, 2013 means Recycle Rewards Inc, which owned Recyclebank UK through Recycle Rewards Ltd, is no longer in the UK market. And, it is now expected that the rewards scheme will have even greater potentialto expand take-up more quickly among local authorities.
Matthew Ball, business development manager of Greenredeem has pledged that services to existing local authority customers will continue as normal.
Greenredeem already has expertise in the UK rewards market for recycling. It has been developing reverse vending sites with its own machines operating in locations across the UK, including Thorpe Park.
Strategic
Mr Ball said: The acquisition is part of a strategic move by Greenredeem to combine recycling at home with recycling on the go. We wanted to transfer behaviours from on the go to the home. We see huge potential for bringing together Recycle Rewards and Greenredeem onto the same platform.
“At Greenredeem weve always been keen to innovate through constant appraisal of market trends and investment in R&D. Adding the knowledge and experience of how to motivate people to recycle more at home will create a fantastic green future.
‘Greenredeem will be looking at the opportunities to develop the business over the next few months’
– Rob Crumbie,Greenredeem
Details of the acquisition financials have not been released. Mr Ball explained that Greenredeem operates as an autonomous division of Grundon Waste Management with Recyclebank UK now a wholly-owned subsidiary.
The former managing director of Recyclebank UK, Andy Watt, has returned to the American business but Rob Crumbie, head of marketing at the business, and who was formerly head of sponsorship at Sainsburys, is staying.
Mr Crumbie told letsrecycle.com that Greenredeem would be looking at the opportunities to develop the business over the next few months. And, he confirmed that the company currently is working with four local authorities: the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, London borough of Lambeth, Wokingham borough council and Halton council.
British
Running the business as a British company, which will have its registered office in Oxford, brings advantages, said Mr Ball. Recyclebank has made steady growth and has in excess of 250,000 members. This is an exciting time for us and in the coming months we hope to be announcing future partnerships.
Questions have been asked in the past about the precise impact of rewards schemes on recycling.
However, Mr Crumbie noted that Recyclebank had increased recycling rates. He said: At the same time we have demonstrated that Recycle Rewards can grow recycling rates faster than the national average. Were delighted that Greenredeem has acknowledged this and sees it as a strategic incentive for this partnership.
Whether the Recyclebank name will remain is unclear with the use of the Greenredeem term expected to be considered instead.
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