INDEPENDENCE (KWWL) -
The city of Independence is in the running for a $100,000 grant to put toward a sustainability project of its choice.
It's part of a national contest sponsored by SC Johnson, where each state has one city competing.
With less than two months remaining of the six-month judging period, Independence sits in the top 20 of 50 competing cities. City manager Steve Diers said it's not too late to win.
The contest asks each Independence household to report to recyclebank.com every time it successfully puts out its recycling once every two weeks.
"There's not oily pizza boxes going in there. People are recycling what they should be. They're not putting garbage in the recycling, so it's been very successful," Diers said.
Diers puts out his recycling every other Friday.
"I wheel my recycling out and then I come and login to Recycle Bank, click on the button and I get 10 points," Diers said in his office Friday afternoon.
A combination of residents' self-reporting and total tonnage of recycled materials makes up the city's rank in the national running.
"We've been hyping this up for the last several months and getting the word around town and people have really taken to it," Diers said.
A relatively new group called Sustainable Independence is modeled after sustainability efforts in Dubuque, Diers said. Those efforts in Independence will continue long after the contest is done.
