Social-Media-Era Green Stamps

Proctor & Gamble has launched a program to promote sustainability.

Procter & Gamble Co. is backing a first-of-its-kind effort to reward consumers for learning and blogging about environmental sustainability as it also underwrites a Cincinnati program to give people points redeemable for goods based on how much they recycle.

P&G's multi-brand Future Friendly program will sponsor incentives for people to sign up with RecycleBank, a sort of electronic "Green Stamps" that gives people points redeemable for local merchants or merchandise when they recycle through curbside collection programs. Other marketers, such as Verizon in Philadelphia and Safeway in San Francisco, have similarly sponsored RecycleBank rewards, but P&G is the first to add a nationwide educational and social-media component to its sponsorship.

Call me skeptical, but I see this as a recruiting and indoctrination program for training useful individuals to become customers for typically overpriced and marginally-effective "green" products.