Recycling challenge rewards US cities

Cities across the US collected more than 114 million aluminium cans as part of the 2012 Cans for Cash City Recycling Challenge.

The winners of the challenge were announced by the United States Conference of Mayors and Novelis, a leader in rolled aluminium products and aluminium can recycling.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, took first place in the ‘most cans collected’ category after amassing the most aluminium beverage cans per capita with a total of 66.2. Overall the number of cans collected in the city was 39,393,259. The reward for coming first was a grant of $25,000.

Second and third places went to Richmond, Indiana, and University City, Missouri, which collected a total of 2,258,852 and 1,627,438 cans respectively. Their per capita figures were 61.4 and 46 and the cities received grants of $15,000 and $5,000 respectively.

Established in 2004, Cans for Cash is a national contest that rewards US cities for recycling aluminium beverage cans. The six winning municipalities were recognised at the 80th Annual Meeting of The United States Conference of Mayors in Orlando, Fla. Combined, cities that participated in the 2012 challenge collected 114,284,354 aluminium beverage cans during the challenge period. The amount of energy saved by recycling these cans could supply enough energy to power 10,884 US homes for an entire day.

The other category was called ‘most innovative ideas’ and rewarded the cities that employed the most creative strategies to promote aluminium beverage can recycling. Winners in this category were Pembroke Pines, Florida; Newport News, Virginia; and Irvine, California.

“As the global leader in aluminium beverage can recycling, Novelis is proud to be the founding sponsor of the Cans for Cash City Recycling Challenge,” says Tom Walpole, senior vice president of Novelis and president, Novelis North America.  “The Challenge provides municipalities with a platform to engage their citizens in a conversation about the importance of recycling and to help build greener, more sustainable communities.”

The Cans for Cash City Recycling Challenge has collected and recycled more than 902 million aluminum cans since the challenge started back in 2004.

“Recycling aluminium beverage cans makes sense both financially and environmentally,” adds Tom Cochran, CEO and executive director of the United States Conference of Mayors. “America’s Mayors are proud to take a national leadership role in promoting environmental sustainability though the Cans for Cash City Recycling Challenge – and through encouraging aluminium beverage can recycling we can encourage revenue generation and job creation as well.”