Lansing - Two weeks ago, Lansing resident John Kanillopoolos didn’t have any extra trash bags to lend to his friend, but now he has more than enough money to buy some extras.

Kanillopoolos was the latest winner of the Lansing Recycler of the Week contest, a program started two years ago by the operations and maintenance division of the city’s Public Service Department.

Winners have an option of choosing a $100 cash prize or 75 green city trash bags, worth $125. Kanillopoolos chose the money.

“The program is designed to provide a financial incentive system to recycle and recycle correctly,” said Steve Chalker, spokesman for the department’s Operations and Maintenance Division.

“We have seen an increase in the quality of materials being recycled.”

Drivers keep track of the addresses of residents who have been recycling correctly, and at the end of each week, a name is chosen. The winners are announced on WILX’s Saturday morning news and by mail.

The Recycler of the Week contest places an emphasis on educating the community on how to recycle correctly.

“Problems arise when people just dump all sorts of things,” said Don Stypula, manager of environmental affairs at the Michigan Municipal League. “Granger Recycling Facility runs into this and are now using cameras to monitor people who do this.”

“They’ll nail those people for doing that - it costs Granger money to separate all the items and dump the proper ones into the landfill.”

Lori Thomas, assistant recycling coordinator in Lansing, said there was no major problem prior to the contest, but the chance to educate and encourage residents was the main motivation.

“When people do participate, we want them to do it correctly,” she said.

East Lansing provides curbside recycling service, but so far no similar contest has been implemented.

“It’s time to give it a kick in the butt,” said David Smith, an East Lansing environmental specialist. “We are going to look at what some of the other communities have done and see what works best for us.”

But whether an incentive program is put in place, recycling efforts in Lansing and East Lansing “are much, much better than average,” Stypula said.

“The two cities have user-friendly curbside recycling systems,” he said.

“And they have formed a mutual agreement which allows recyclable material to be processed at one facility.”

But the condition of the economy and the loss of a market for recycling businesses and products has had an affect on recycling.

“There has been a nationwide trend in tonnage’s dropping,” said Thomas. “The city of Lansing is not out of line with that.”