U City Wins Third Place in 2012 Cans for Cash Recycling Challenge

The United States Conference of Mayors and Novelis Inc. has awarded   third place in the “Most Cans Collected” category of the 2012 Cans for Cash™ City Recycling Challenge.

The city received a $5,000 grant as part of the award. 

Established in 2004, Cans for Cash is a national contest that rewards U.S. cities for recycling aluminum beverage cans. The winners were announced at the 80th Annual Meeting of The United States Conference of Mayors in Orlando, FL.

The “Most Cans Collected” category recognized cities that collected the most aluminum beverage cans per capita during the challenge period (any consecutive 28 days between March 1s and April 30). University City placed third by collecting more than 1.6 million aluminum cans from March 2 through March 30, totaling approximately 46 cans per resident.

“I have long supported community recycling efforts and am pleased about our residents’ participation in this important challenge and in other University City recycling programs,” said Mayor Shelley Welsch. “We appreciate the recognition from the United States Conference of Mayors and Novelis for our recycling efforts. We plan to use the cash award to purchase additional recycling containers for our residential curbside collection program.”

Milwaukee, WI, and Richmond, IN, placed first and second, respectively, in the “Most Cans Collected” Category.

“As the global leader in aluminum beverage can recycling, Novelis is proud to be the founding sponsor of the Cans for Cash City Recycling Challenge,” said 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.”

Combined, cities that participated in the 2012 Challenge collected 114,284,354 aluminum beverage cans during the challenge period. The amount of energy saved by recycling these cans could supply enough energy to power 10,884 U.S. homes for an entire day. The Cans for Cash City Recycling Challenge has collected and recycled more than 902 million aluminum cans since the challenge started in 2004.

“Recycling aluminum beverage cans makes sense both financially and environmentally,” said 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 aluminum beverage can recycling we can encourage revenue generation and job creation as well.”