2.4 million pounds of cans collected in City Recycling Challenge

Nov. 15 -- About 30 cities collected more than 82 million aluminum cans weighing an aggregate 2.4 million pounds during two weeks in September as part of a friendly competition to encourage recycling.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, Novelis Inc. and Keep America Beautiful unveiled the winners of the 2006 Cans for Cash: City Recycling Challenge on Nov. 15. The annual competition challenges like-sized cities to compete against one another in aluminum can collection for a $5,000 prize. The competing cities are divided into four divisions based on their populations.

This year´s winners were:

Division 1 (cities with population greater than 250,000): Milwaukee, Wis., which collected 1.1 million pounds of cans.

Division 2 (population 100,000 to 249,999): Fontana, Calif., 213,515 pounds.

Division 3 (population 50,000 to 99,999): Bowling Green, Ky., 78,310 pounds.

Division 4 (population below 50,000): Richmond, Ind., 29,970 pounds.

Four additional $5,000 awards were given to cities deemed to have the most innovative education and marketing ideas. The winners of those awards, in order of the respective divisions, were Lexington, Ky.; Tallahassee, Fla.; Bowling Green, Ky.; and Columbus, Ind.

For more information, including the list of participating cities, go to www.usmayors.org/mwma .