From 3pm to 7pm, you can exchange five plastic shopping bags for one of those green plastic totes you've probably seen around. H-E-B estimates that it'll collect some 750,000 plastic bags today as a result of this giveaway, which is a good step towards reaching Austin's new goal of having each major local retailer recycle 600,000 pounds of plastic bags in the first half of 2009....

What do you get when you recycle 80,000 pounds of aluminum cans, or approximately 2.7 million cans? Well, evidently $5,000 dollars and a national award for the City Recycling Challenge. Mayor Will Wynn accepted the Cans for Cash prize on behalf of the City of Austin at the recent U.S. Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting taking place last week....