Three communities will be able to tout themselves as “Green Cities” following the presentation of the first-ever Green City Awards during the second annual Residential Recycling Conference.

The conference, held March 29-31 in Nashville, was co-organized by Waste & Recycling News and Republic Services Inc.

The first Green City Awards were given to Muncie, Ind.; Lake County, Ill.; and Dallas, Texas.

“Waste & Recycling News and Republic Services organized the Green City Awards specifically to recognize the efforts of communities who are educating their citizens on the merits of recycling,” said Allan Gerlat, editor of Waste & Recycling News.

“It’s impressive, the breadth of energy and imagination that has gone into these programs.”

The awards were sponsored by ReCommunity.

“The core reason community is in our name, the reason we chose to sponsor this, is because it’s a core building block of everything we’re going to do, if we’re going to recover things for the future,” ReCommunity CEO James Bohlig said.

“I’m particularly pleased and proud to be a part of the early supporters, of identifying communities who have chosen to take the hard path forward that is necessary to make a difference,” Bohlig said. “At the end of the day, the hard part starts in communities. Those communities have to find a way to communicate and educate their folks about the importance of what we’re doing.”

About 40 communities were nominated for the awards. Awards were presented in three categories based on the size of the community: small, medium and large.

Representing the city of Dallas at the award ceremony, recycling specialist Katie Carlin said, “We’ll use this to promote our program. We’ve got a program where we’re focusing on neighborhoods to drive participation. We are a green city; we’re going to become a greener city.”

Carlin said the award would work well with new efforts to integrate composting into city diversion efforts.

Fliers detailing the nine finalists in the three categories are available online at www.residentialrecyclingconference.com/green_city_award.html.