Patent ID: 7949557

Claim:
A method of providing incentive to recycle comprising: a. receiving recyclable materials from a first entity via a receptacle, the receptacle containing a source identification to associate the receptacle to the first entity; b. reading, by a vehicle computer, the source identification of the receptacle at a time of collection of the recyclable materials from the receptacle; c. determining, by inputting data to the vehicle computer, a quantity of the recyclable materials in the receptacle at the time of collection, the quantity of recyclable materials consisting of a quantitative measurement of all recyclable materials in the receptacle, independent of qualitative characteristics of individual recyclable materials within the recyclable materials; d. creating, by the vehicle computer, a record comprising information indicative of (i) the receipt of recyclable materials and (ii) the quantity of the recyclable materials, and sending the record to a remote computer, the remote computer being associated with a second entity; e. storing, by the remote computer, the record in a database accessible to the remote computer; f. accepting the recyclable materials for recycling by placing the recyclable materials in a bulk material storage of a recycling pickup vehicle; g. transforming the record into a credit using the remote computer and a reward rate algorithm, the credit being associated with the source identification and the first entity, wherein transforming the record into a credit comprises: using the remote computer and the reward rate algorithm to apply at least one reward rate selected from a number of different reward rates, the at least one reward rate being based on at least one demographic to which the first entity is a member; h. the remote computer storing the credit in the database in association with a network-accessible account associated with the first entity; i. receiving, from the first entity, a request to redeem the credit in exchange for a reward, the reward being usable at third party participating retailers for any of goods, services, coupons for goods or services, and other economic benefit, the third party participating retailers being entities other than the first and second entities.