Building a Recycling Business
MBA student Ron Gonen came up with the idea for a recycling business called Recyclebank. Seven years later, his company has stopped an estimated billion pounds of waste from hitting landfills. The business now operates in 29 states and the UK, helping cities to reduce landfill fees by weighting what residents recycle and awarding them points to spend at local merchants and big chains.
Cities pay Recyclebank for every ton of trash it diverts from landfills, and marketers buy ads on its website. Mr. Gonen turned over management of the company to Jonathan Hsu, and at age 36 he took up an environmental leadership fellowship at the Aspen Institute and a teaching position at his former alma mater, Columbia Business School. Recyclebank was formerly know as Recycle Rewards, and it recently ranked as No. 4 on the Wall Street Journal's Top 50 Venture-Funded Companies list, and No. 1 on the Top 10 Clean-Tech Companies list.
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