Being green and saving money

One of the major reasons that the majority of society in the U.S. hasn't contributed to "being green" is that they haven't had motivation to.  Generally people won't put that extra effort into recycling without some direct benefit being gained by them for their extra effort.  We can say that they are helping save the planet, but honestly that theme really doesn't motivate as many people as we'd hope it would.With the U.S. going into a recession we're more likely to see a cut in recycling and environment friendly behavior simply because most people would consider such activates as being a luxury and not cost effective. 

I know in my community there is a fee if you wish to recycle cans, many people who might otherwise recycle do not simply because they don't want to have to pay this fee!  While I would be overjoyed if as a society people would act on behalf of the environment for the sake of preserving it, at this point in time I'd be satisfied if the majority of my community would just contribute to the solution rather than the problem regardless of their reason why. If we can find a way to show people that being green actually SAVES them money both in the long run and short term we would see more individuals and businesses contributing to such activities/programs. 

Post/Link here if you have any ideas or plans on ways people can be green in a manner that is more cost effective than NOT being green.