The aluminum can was created for beverages at the Coors brewery in Golden, CO in 1959. The reason for the change was careless discarding of steel and tin beverage cans causing environmental problems. The company also instituted recycling of the aluminum can.
We live in an enjoy and ditch society where taking a moment to even think about the destiny of a can is inconvenient. My honey and I perhaps think too much and simple observation resulted in this question begging for action leading to an answer. “How many beverage cans could we pick up on the three-mile loop I usually use for my daily run?”
We took our bikes and two bags determined to crush the cans to take up less space. We underestimated the number of can we would find. The two bags were full before we made it halfway and we’d only done one side of the road. We made a trip home to dump the bags and go back out again.
Some people in cars glared at us when they passed us. Picking up cans or trash along the roads seems to be equivalent of dumpster diving. Trust me; we weren’t in this for the money. Our recycler pays twenty cents per pound for aluminum. It was higher but the economy hit recyclers too. We ended up with 233 cans and earned $1.40 for the scrap aluminum. We wondered if we would have found fewer cans if we lived in a state that charged a can deposit. At five cents per can we would have collected $11.65.
I’m curious though. Drinking and driving is illegal. So why did we find a majority of beer cans?
THE END
No comments:
Post a Comment