Jubi Headley
July 2, 2012

The winners of the 2012 Cans for Cash^TM City Recycling Challenge were announced during the Environment Committee meeting on June 13 by the Conference of Mayors and Novelis Inc., the global leader in rolled aluminum products and aluminum can recycling. Established in 2004, Cans for Cash^TM is a national contest that rewards U.S. cities for recycling aluminum beverage cans.

Grants were made in two categories: Most Cans Collected and Most Innovative Ideas. First place winners in each category were awarded $25,000 grants and second and third place winners were awarded $15,000 and $5,000 grants respectively. Novelis Senior Manager or North America Communications and Government Affairs was on hand to make the presentations.

"Most Cans Collected" recognized the cities that collected the most aluminum beverage cans per capita during the Challenge period. In this category the winners were:

• First Place ($25,000 grant): Milwaukee (WI) — Mayor Tom Barrett, Number of Cans Collected: 39,393,259; Cans Collected per capita: 66.2

• Second Place ($15,000 grant): Richmond (IN) — Mayor Sally Hutton, Number of Cans Collected: 2,258,852; Cans Collected per capita: 61.4

• Third Place ($5,000 grant): University City (MO) — Mayor Shelley Welsch, Number of Cans Collected: 1,627,438; Cans Collected per capita: 46.0

2012 marked the first year in the history of the Challenge that cities with single stream recycling could participate. Combined, cities that participated in the 2012 Challenge collected more than 114 million aluminum beverage cans during the Challenge period. The energy saved by recycling this amount of cans could provide enough energy to power nearly 11,000 American homes for a day.

The "Most Innovative Ideas" category rewarded cities for employing creative strategies to promote aluminum beverage can recycling. Winners in this category were:

First Place ($25,000 grant): Pembroke Pines (FL) — Mayor Frank Ortis. Pembroke Pines placed first by incorporating the city's Cans for Cash campaign into the 11-day fair celebrating the city's 52nd birthday. Pembroke Pines set up aluminum beverage can recycling bins around the fairgrounds and the city also encouraged seven local charter schools to collect cans and bring them to the festival. Those cans were used to build a giant aluminum can birthday cake that was on display for several days of the celebration.

Second Place ($15,000 grant): Newport News (VA) — Mayor Mckinley Price. Newport News engaged both local and regional partners to promote the importance of aluminum can recycling. These partnerships helped the city provide recycling education presentations to more than 37 business and groups. The city also created recycling education displays and promotional materials for large local events.

Third Place ($5,000 grant): Irvine (CA) — Mayor Sukhee Kang. Irvine partnered with local schools and businesses to educate the community on the value of aluminum can recycling. The city submitted a creative video showing how the city utilized traditional media outreach, marketing efforts, new technology and social media to increase awareness around recycling. The city will donate 100 percent of its prize money to Human Options, a local nonprofit that helps victims of domestic violence get back on their feet.

The Cans for Cash^TM City Recycling Challenge has collected and recycled more than 900 million aluminum cans since the Challenge started back in 2004. For more information on the Cans for Cash^TM City Recycling Challenge, visit the website www.cans4cash.com.