Limited Brands, a 10-year-old-Upper Arlington student and The Columbus Crew headline the first Central Ohio Emerald Awards presented by SWACO and its member communities. The awards honor the best and most innovative recycling, green design and waste reduction programs of 2005. The Central Ohio Emerald Awards were presented at the Hilton at Easton, Thursday April 20, 2006. Communities, organizations, businesses, and individuals were honored in six categories; waste reduction, leadership, best practices, partnerships, environmental education, and litter prevention. The awards were decided by an independent panel of five judges.

SWACO Executive Director Mike Long congratulates all the award winners and the nominees. "Our judges tell me it was very hard to choose between the nominations. All of us in Central Ohio are winners due to the efforts of these leaders."

The Emerald for Best Practices goes to Limited Brands. The Columbus based retailer has 7 distribution centers that diverted over 16-million pounds of material from the landfill in 2005. More than 73% of what was intended for landfilling was instead recycled. The company also has designed programs which have brought about a 60% reuse rate for its shipping cartons, and a redesign of those cartons has brought about less use of fiber in carton construction.