THERE'S NO INTERESTING SUBSTITUTE FOR THE WORD "ECONOMICS"
The post below is economic observation. What I wanted to talk about was a cool Philadelphia, USA initiative I found. Instead I prattled on about general demand for resource responsible business.

The Philadelphia initiative I found is RecycleBank (hat tip Plenty Magazine). RecycleBank provides incentives for sustainable behaviour and shares many similarities with ShoppingFix. With RecycleBank the benefit of recycling is kept within the community. Recyclers get "paid", the business of recycling is a more viable, raw materials are readily available, and the local environment is healthier. Its much easier to see the closed loop in this "community" scale initiative.

At the more abstract end of the sustainability continuum is alonovo. I purchased a few books through their sustainable shopping concept a few weeks back (I'll be posting about at least one of those books soon). Ethiscore (run by the UK Ethical Consumer magazine) and BuyBlue are more examples which arm consumers with the right information. These programs concentrate on the front end of sustainability while RecycleBank arguably concentrates on the rear. Alonovo relies on others to ensure that the arse end is catered for, RecycleBank relies on people buying recyclable material (individuals and manufacturers).

With all of these international initiatives that have similarities to ours, I know we're on the right track with ShoppingFix. So keep an ear out and support us as soon as you can.