View Poll Results: What do you do with your aluminum cans?
Voters: 98. You may not vote on this poll
Aluminum Cans
Posting Guru
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,006
Likes: 0
From: San Jose, CA
Originally Posted by michaelbarry
It's crazy what some people will do to make money. Just a few weeks ago, two young guys (one around 20 years old, the other around 30) got burned up in an old store building right down the road here. They broke into the store, went to the basement to steal copper pipe, they were cold and started a fire to keep warm, the fire got out of control and they somehow got trapped. Burned them to death. It's not worth it.
I always take mine back for recycling at an automated recycling machine that does image recognition. Pretty neat stuff. $0.04 for cans, $0.08 for bigger cans/bottles. Or, there are recycling shops that buy aluminum for $1.40/lb. A couple of small trash bags full of uncrushed cans adds up quickly, and they just about pay for the gas to get there in my truck :-(
Posting Guru
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 2,246
Likes: 2
From: Hawkeye Country
iowas got the 5 cent deposit on cans, if im in the truck i throw them in the bed at home ive got another trash can i use for cans and bottles. i load them up a in trash bags a hundred cans a piece. when i get 15-20 bags laying around the gradge i take them to a place called can city for recycling. depending on how busy they are sometimes theres no time for counting so the lady will just hand ya 25 or 30 bucks. i just add that money to the beer fund and life goes on for another month.
Postmaster
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 2,958
Likes: 0
From: Southern NH
In my town you have to pay for trash pickup or take it to the dump yourself. I chose the latter. The dump enforces recycling. They actually check your bags sometimes, and make you take out stuff that can be recycled. So now, at home I have two barrels. One for regular trash, and the other for things that get recycled, like cans, bottles, cat food cans, and even aluminum foil. Then outside I have a bin where I put all my cardboard. It sounds a bit extreme. But it's either that or pay for trash pickup.
Elder User
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 878
Likes: 0
From: Cornelius, Oregon
Originally Posted by okst1
pitrow, if I go buy a semi-trailer full of cans at one cent apiece, can I sell them in oregon for five cents apiece?
Anyway, you might be able to work a deal with the grocery stores, they take our cans and crush them and sell them back to the state by the pound and the state has a formula that figures so many cans per pound... so you might be able to do it that way.
Postmaster
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 4,043
Likes: 4
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Lead Driver
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 6,335
Likes: 6
From: Midwest
a guy I work with put both his kids through college with aluminum can money. He turns in so many at a time,he just calls the recycle place and they bring a semi out to pick them up!! of course he is at work about an hour earlier every day,and stays later,so it almost like a part time job. I collect them also,but only make about $80 a year,not into it that much.
Posting Guru
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,006
Likes: 0
From: San Jose, CA
Man, where does he get so many cans to pay for college? Surely he's not drinking that much canned stuff at home!? Or does the guy run a restaurant?
I've spotted a janitor guy at work who empties all of the recycle bins from work into his car and cashes in at the automated recycling center several times. I'm tempted to report the dude since it's considered company theft!
Then there are the people who go around the neighborhood cleaning out everyone's recycle bins on garbage day...
I've spotted a janitor guy at work who empties all of the recycle bins from work into his car and cashes in at the automated recycling center several times. I'm tempted to report the dude since it's considered company theft!
Then there are the people who go around the neighborhood cleaning out everyone's recycle bins on garbage day...
Senior User
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 279
Likes: 0
From: Tillsonburg ON
Originally Posted by bigrigfixer
There was a guy in Vancouver who, years ago, collected enough cans, and saved enough money, to build his own hotel. It was called the "Blue Boy Hotel". Not called that anymore though.
I throw mine in the blue box. Too much trouble to take them back for the refund and I hate getting my hands all sticky. Garbage costs $1/bag for curbside pickup (max 2 bags). The blue box is free pickup, I wish they took more stuff in there like they did when I lived in BC. We also have the same kind of enforced recycling at the dump that NH-Hottie described.
Junior User
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 65
Likes: 0
To those who have to pay a deposit on cans,
Do you have "can free" roadsides or do people still throw them out the window and lose their deposit? My guess is you have less cans littering the land which in turn cuts down on having the state clean up as much. The cans that are thrown out can be a great income opportunity for those who want to pick them up. I am sure though it is a PITA to take them back in. Just a different way of looking at it.
"Avoid Alzhiemers disease, play chess" Documented fact: It is a rarity that regular chess players get Alzhiemers disease.
Do you have "can free" roadsides or do people still throw them out the window and lose their deposit? My guess is you have less cans littering the land which in turn cuts down on having the state clean up as much. The cans that are thrown out can be a great income opportunity for those who want to pick them up. I am sure though it is a PITA to take them back in. Just a different way of looking at it.
"Avoid Alzhiemers disease, play chess" Documented fact: It is a rarity that regular chess players get Alzhiemers disease.
Senior User
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 130
Likes: 0
From: Rock Hill, SC
We recycle here, but the good thing is, we do no necessarily have to seperate things at the house. Our local recycling center is staffed by residents of the county jail, so they get to spend their days seperating our garbage. We just put grocery bags of recyclables on the curb, and they are picked up with no real effort on our part.
