Here's how it works, and how the city benefits:

A waste-management company actually pays the city $28 for every ton of recyclables brought to its plant, while landfills charge $62 for every ton of garbage. That means recycling puts a huge chunk of change into city coffers. Good for the environment and the pocketbook.

That's why the city's recent announcement that it will spend $5 million over the next year and $25 million over the next five to upgrade recycling technology is good news.

Even better news: Instead of being required to separate paper, plastic and glass into separate containers, we can put all recyclables into a single bin. This is called single-stream recycling, and the Streets Department has already spent at least $3 million on 22 trucks with the right type of compartments and compactors to make it a reality.

Why should you care?

Consider this: Say you invited some friends over, and you drank a few beers. If your beverage of choice came in a standard aluminum can, the empty container weighs about 1.75 ounces. If you and your buddies emptied 18 cans, it would create about two pounds of waste.

Putting those aluminum cans in a recycling bin would net the city 2.8 cents. If the cans wind up in the garbage, the city would have to spend 6.1 cents of your tax dollars to dispose of them.

Seems like a no-brainer, right?

Despite the obvious benefits, Philadelphia has a pathetic residential recycling participation rate of about 5 percent. We could gain $17 million in revenue every year if we simply raised our rate to 35 percent, which would be closer to what's accomplished by other major cities. That $17 million could be used by our financially strapped city to improve services, cut taxes or repair aging infrastructure.

We're shooting ourselves in the fiscal foot by not taking the time to recycle.

Of course, not all of the blame can be placed on city residents. Local government hasn't always made it easy to recycle.

Until recently, a complicated patchwork of collection times and sorting rules made recycling extremely confusing.

Single-stream recycling should help - and it's raised the recycling rate in other cities. Besides upgrading the trucks, the Streets Department has also announced plans to distribute 70,000 plastic bins over the next year. City officials believe giving away special containers, which were already available from the city, will help boost the recycling rate by raising the visibility of single stream.

GIVEN THE money that can be saved and the recent steps taken to make the process easier, Philadelphians should be lining up to recycle.

The Nutter administration has done its part by making things simpler. It's now up to us to do the right thing and recycle. The fiscal and environmental health of our city depends on it. *

Ben Waxman reports for "It's Our Money" (www.ourmoneyphilly.com), a partnership between the Daily News and WHYY funded by the William Penn Foundation.

E-mail waxmanb@phillynews.com.