RecycleBank™, a rewards program motivating people to recycle, announced that Coca-Cola has invested $2 million in the company to help enable RecycleBank to expand nationwide. The investment is part of a larger relationship with RecycleBank to increase curbside recycling rates in the United States.

RecycleBank motivates households and communities to recycle by financially rewarding each household for the amount they’ve recycled. RecycleBank’s proprietary technology measures the amount of material recycled and then converts the amount into RecycleBank Points that can be used at hundreds of local and national reward partners.

“Through our additional investment in RecycleBank, we are fulfilling our commitment to advance economically viable approaches to recycling collection in the communities we serve,” said Scott Vitters, director of sustainable packaging, The Coca-Cola Company. “We believe this program will revolutionize the way consumers view their trash, from disposables to valuable reusables.”

RecycleBank’s long-term connection with households enables reward partners like Coca-Cola to recognize the vast and unique marketing opportunities in RecycleBank. More than 300 local and national businesses have partnered with RecycleBank in order to reach the households that RecycleBank services.

Last year, RecycleBank and Coca-Cola formed the RecycleBank Donations Program. The program enables households to donate their RecycleBank Points to the Ocean Conservancy, a nonprofit organization committed to clean water issues and the RecycleBank Green Schools program which helps fund environmental initiatives at schools in RecycleBank areas. Coca-Cola pledged to match dollar for RecycleBank Point that was donated. Based on the success of the RecycleBank Donations Program in 2006, Coca-Cola has reconfirmed its commitment for another year long partnership to continue to sponsor these programs.

“Coca-Cola believed in RecycleBank when it was just an entrepreneur’s vision and has continued to support us since our launch,” said Ron Gonen, CEO of RecycleBank. “We are proud that our relationship continues to deepen with Coca-Cola as we work together on a number of activities to promote a more sustainable business community and to scale RecycleBank nationally.”

Following Coca-Cola’s investment, RRE Ventures and Sigma Partners remain as the largest institutional shareholder group and Ron Gonen, the co-founder and CEO, remains as the largest individual shareholder. RecycleBank currently provides service in New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania and will be launching service nationally in 2008.