The Metro Waste Authority’s annual friendly plastic bag recycling competition among local cities featured Urbandale’s come-from-behind victory and another score in Alleman. Urbandale had finished second to Grimes in the amount collected by weight last year, but deployed the schools to help collect 2,258 pounds for the win this time. That included collecting more than 2,000 pounds in a week. Alleman was a repeat winner in the amount collected per capita. In the three years this has been going on, area cities have collected 11,557 pounds of plastic to keep the bags out of the landfill and to emphasize they don’t belong in recycling bins, either. “Residents have choices, including what type of bag they get,” MWA spokeswoman Leslie Irlbeck explained. “Reusable or paper are great alternatives, but if a resident is going to get a plastic bag, we encourage proper disposal,” Irlbeck said. “This may mean reusing it at home as a small trash bag or taking it back to the grocer for recycling.”