Ron Gonen, a Columbia University professor who founded Recyclebank, will start next week in a newly created post tasked with doubling New York City's recycling rate to 30 percent by 2017.

Ron GonenIn an interview with The New York Times, Gonen said he would focus first on beefing up two areas in which New York lags other cities: the number of recycling bins placed alongside trash cans in public spaces and the curbside collection of food scraps for composting.

Public awareness campaigns must also emphasize the financial benefits of recycling, in that the city saves money by not sending trash to landfills, he said. The new "waste czar" also said he plans to enlist consumer product companies and manufacturers in helping with the marketing and financing of new recycling programs.

Gonen, 37, is a founder of Recyclebank, a company that awards points to consumers for recycling that they can redeem at local and national restaurants, stores and other retailers. He is also a co-founder of an environmental services firm that helps bring renewable energy to sport stadiums.

"Ron's years of work in the recycling and sustainability field perfectly matches the needs that we have at the D.S.N.Y. so that we can meet the mayor's specific goals," the city's Sanitation Commissioner, John J. Doherty, said in a statement.