We’ve entered the Myoo Create “The Beat Waste Startup Challenge” contest.

Come Vote for ecycler!

On the ecycler contest page, click on the “Vote for it!” below the video… It will most likely ask you to register which takes less than 120 seconds.

The registration process is easy, it will ask for an email address, username and password. It will then send a confirmation message to that email account. To finish the registration (thus the vote for ecycler), you’ll need to go to your email and confirm with the link provided in the message from Myoo Create. BTW, this is a spam-free site…

We really appreciate the vote! Please also tell your friends and family.

ELEVATOR PITCH:

At ecycler.com we bring together those who have recyclables to give away with those who want to collect those recyclables. Many US households or businesses are not offered curb-side recycling; we’re giving them that option.

The collectors—or community entrepreneurs—will redeem the recyclables they collect for cash.

Ecycler further enhances the social value of recycling as the discarders will feel good about the environment and helping someone in need. They also have the ability to track their recycling in terms of the number of units and their combined carbon offsets.

We currently are trying to reach people who would like to become ecycler discarders; we hope to get businesses apartments and groups of friends to start saving their recyclables for their local collector. Also we are looking for people to become a local ecycler collector and pick up recyclables from the discarders.

Don’t forget: Check out the contest and Vote for ecycler, we really appreciate it:

http://myoocreate.com/challenges/the-plastiki-beat-waste-startup-challenge/entries/295

UPDATE

Many thanks to everyone that made the effort to vote for ecycler. Unfortunately, we were not selected for the subsequent rounds of competition. However, stay tuned, we have some excellent news to share.

Ecycler.com has introduced new features that will make connecting with discarders and collectors easier.

ecycler's recycling exchange

A new collector directory allows people with recyclables to discard to find collectors in their state. Likewise, a new discarder directory allows collectors to see which discarders are nearby. It also enables discarders to see which other discarders are joining the ecycler revolution.

In addition, the site has a new recycling exchange feature that allows people to see what kind of recyclables are available in their state. For example, a collector could click on “ Florida ” and see that someone in a particular zip code has a trash bag of aluminum cans to give away. If that discarder resides in the collector’s area, the collector can then contact that discarder directly through ecycler.com to arrange for a pick-up.

Come check it out!

We recently ran an article on the decision process of using either paper or plastic while in the checkout line (check it out here: Which is Better… Paper or Plastic?). Our conclusion? Best to use a re-usable bag. So, we thought it would be a great idea to give away a pile of our bags to one lucky winner. What’s a pile? How about five bags!

ecycler Bag Giveaway

As always, the ecycler bags are available at shop.ecycler.com for $5.99 each.

WIN:

We have a pile of FIVE of these fun ecycler Eco-Friendly Bags to giveaway!

How to Enter:

To enter, make a comment telling us how you are trying to be more GREEN.

Extra Entries:

For extra entries you may do the following, make sure you indicate your extras in a separate comment.

• Register on ecycler.com
• Twitter (tweet us at @ecycler)
• Blog about the giveaway
• Add our WordPress widget to your blog

Available in the US only, this giveaway will end on March 1, 2010 – See the official Rules here

We need your help in getting people to recycle more!

I recently spent a few evenings in St. Petersburg, FL posting our ecycler posters. To post posters in your own community, all you’ll need are:

1. Posters printed preferably in color on recycled paper.
2. Thumbtacks
3. Green Transportation: a bicycle or hybrid/low mpg vehicle
4. Internet access before you go
5. Phone

ecycler Marketing Poster - PDF 180KB

Before heading out from the hotel I used maps.google.com to make a list of businesses that I know have community boards or are very likely to have community boards where posters can be posted. The following franchise businesses usually have community boards: Starbucks, Panera Bread, Jimmy Johns and Whole Foods. I made a list of these and called each to find out if they have a community board. Panera and Jimmy Johns all had boards and did not have restrictions. About half of the Starbucks had community boards, though some only allow non-profit organizations to post. Some of their boards even say “This board is for information, not for selling stuff,” so keep that in mind for your cause. With ecycler posters, Starbucks managers were cool about it. When I explained that the purpose of the poster is to let people know about ecycler and how they can create their own recycling program or list their recyclables, the managers approved the posters.

The other category of business that usually has community boards are independent coffee shops and organic grocery stores (as well as some regular grocery stores). I called three of the coffee shops and all three had community boards or allowed posting in the window. The Whole Foods and organic grocery stores also had boards.

The next step was to create an optimal route (for the engineers out there creating an optimal travel route is the classic operations research problem called TSP or Traveling Salesperson Problem). I used the website: http://gebweb.net/optimap/. It allows you to add up to 24 addresses and create a round trip optimal travel route. The site will list the order in which you should go to the stores to minimize travel time. If you are going on a trip from one city to another you can choose A-Z which then optimally determines which places to go. But since I my start and end point was my hotel I needed the round trip choice.

I saved my list to my blackberry and headed out. Starbucks stores usually have magnets so you don’t need a tack, but other places may or may not have tacks. As you are posting posters you will see and meet interesting people. I got several questions when I was posting the posters and had some good conversations about recycling!

So you may want to know if it worked. A week after posting 12 we had one person interested and people visited the site! When I returned to Florida two weeks later, I visited some of the locations where I posted posters and found that people had torn off the tabs that direct them to ecycler.com.

Living without curbside recycling? Don’t fret … a new website called ecycler aims to connect recyclable discarders and collectors in your community.

How to use ecycler

Want to start 2010 off on the right, green foot? For those living in areas sans a curbside recycling pick-up service or a convenient recyclables drop-off station, a recently launched website called ecycler is looking to make things a whole easier via a virtual “Collect, connect, recycle” system.

Using ecycler is easy breezy — it’s essentially an online classifieds community for folks looking to get recyclables off of their hands or “discarders,” and those who are willing to pick them up and take/sell them to recycling centers or “collectors.” Not only do desperately seeking “discarders” benefit from using ecycler, but “collectors” can find the site beneficial as well with opportunities to turn green do-goodery into a small but thriving eco-enterprise (read: money-making).

Of course, ecycler won’t work without a committed network of  collectors, so if you’re interested in taking a few hours a week to play the role of “friendly local recyclable man or woman” take a gander at the site’s homepage — and blog and community forum — to see how you can become involved. And for more info on recycling facilities near you, check out the indispensable Earth911.

Folks without a convenient way to dispose of recyclables: would you sign up to become a member of a site like ecycler? And dedicated recyclers: is taking on the role of an entrepreneurial ecycler collector something that would interest you?

Click to see original Mother Nature Network feature

Come check out the write-up on TrendHunter.com and give us a “Hot” rating. TrendHunter.com is the world’s largest, most popular trend community. Fueled by a global network of 30,000 members. Sounds good to us!

Some neighborhoods don’t have free recycling pickup services but now, with the Ecycler site, there is no excuse not to recycle. The Ecycler site fulfills everyone’s green aspirations by connecting people who need a recycling service with those who want to do the recycling.

Basically, using the Ecycler site, eco-conscious consumers can find people in their communities who are ‘recycling entrepreneurs.’ These entrepreneurs get a customizable URL, downloadable personalized business cards and posters for publicity, while consumers with recyclables can simply choose from the list of entrepreneurs and arrange a pickup. Check out Ecycler.com to learn more.

Showcase here: http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/ecycler-site

Come check out our profile on Ziipa.com and give us five stars. Ziipa’s goal is to showcase the best Web 2.0 websites, start-ups and applications. Sounds good to us!

Showcase here: http://www.ziipa.com/view/ecycler

Environment Social networking Web 2.0 Site: Collect. Connect. Recycle.
http://ecycler.com/

According to Feedmyapp: Ecycler creates a new way to recycle by connecting people discarding cans, bottles and newspapers with those wishing to collect them.

Ecycler provides an alternative to the many U.S. households that are not offered curb-side recycling. It’s also an option for people who have to pay for curb-side recycling or who want to have their recyclables picked up when and where they desire.

For the individual (or group) collecting recyclables, ecycler provides an entrepreneurship opportunity. Ecycler is driven by these collectors who establish an ecycler recycling program in their community. Collectors can download personalized business cards and posters generated by ecycler.com and then post them in public places. Collector accounts also include a customizable ecycler URL, i.e., their profile page. Anyone who has access to the Internet can become an ecycler collector.

Discarders can do their part for the environment while at the same time helping collectors in need of additional income. The discarders’ recyclables are “collected” by these individuals or groups and redeemed for cash at a local recycling center. Ecycler supports this community building for groups such as the Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts, Church groups, social clubs, etc. by making available the same marketing materials used by individual collectors on ecycler.com.

Ecycler encourages people to discard their recyclables for free; however, discarders can request a portion of the proceeds from the collector. Discarders can track their carbon credits on the site. In addition to the automated calculation of materials recycled though ecycler.com, discarders have the option of listing how many recyclables they’ve given away on their own to be included in their total.

Ecycler provides an accountability tool by allowing collectors and discarders to rate their experiences with one another.

Click to see original Feedmyapp feature

We were featured on killerstartups.com today.

Bringing together those who want to give away recyclables and the ones who want to collect them is the service this site renders, and it is a valuable service any way you look at it. Through the site, any person who is interested in recycling can market himself and let others within his community know that he is willing to collect recyclables.

The team responsible for it cites the job creation aspect of eCycler as one of its main assets. That is, eCycler provides a mean for individuals or groups to become self-organized and collect recyclables from those that are willing to give them away. That means that Boy Scout Troops and Church groups among others could advertise themselves using the provided marketing materials, and let the community know they are recycling. People would then look for them as a viable alternative to curbside pickup. The group would raise money for its cause by collecting the recyclables, and every party is benefited by such an approach.

Right now, the site is accepting submissions by collectors who want to market their own recycling programs. If you are one, and the basic premise described above appealed to you, then dropping by the site is certainly worth considering.

Check out the feature here: killerstartups.com

Hello Everyone! To get ecycler going, we need collectors to sign up on the site and start marketing their own ecycler recycling programs. If you have recyclables to give away, please be patient as our base of collectors grows — and be sure to point potential collectors you know to the site.