Cans for Cash Award Winners Announced

Winners of the sixth annual Cans for Cash: City Recycling Challenge were announced last week at the 78th Winter Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Presented by Keep America Beautiful (KAB), the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Novelis Inc., the challenge pits cities of comparable sizes in a recycling competition, awarding cities with the most innovative recycling campaigns and highest collection numbers of aluminum cans. More than 40 cities participated in the annual event, collecting more than 125 million used beverage cans in October 2009.

Aluminum is a durable and sustainable metal. Two-thirds of the aluminum ever produced is still in use today. Photo: Amanda Wills, Earth911.com

Cities were awarded $5,000 cash prizes in four categories: Most Aluminum Cans Recycled, Most Innovative Ideas, Most Innovative Ideas for Cities Partnering with KAB and American Recycler Video Award.

At less than 3 pounds of aluminum cans collected per person, the city of Milwaukee, Wisc. took the top spot in the “Most Collected” category, collecting 1,765,623 pounds of aluminum cans in the month of October.

Milwaukee brought top honors back to the city in 2008 as well, winning their category with more than 1.75 million pounds recycled.

First place in the Most Innovative category went to the city of Irvine, Calif., while first place for Most Innovative partnering with KAB went to the city of Montgomery, Alab. and the Montgomery Clean City Commission.

“The United States Conference of Mayors applauds all the participants of the 2009 Cans for Cash City Recycling Program,” said Tom Cochran, CEO and Executive Director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

“These cities had an opportunity to bring the benefits of recycling to the forefront of their communities, demonstrating that recycling does begin with ‘I Can.’ [...] Their commitment to environmental stewardship is unmatched. Once again, they are leading the way towards a greener and more sustainable tomorrow.”

Aluminum cans, recycled nationally at an approximate rate of 55 percent, can appear back on store shelves in 60 days, representing one of the quickest turnaround times for a recycled commodity. Aluminum is a valuable material to recycle, as it takes one-twentieth the energy to create a can from recycled material than one made from virgin ore.

Looking for a creative reuse project? Check out these fun reuse ideas for aluminum cans.