I put out my garbage and recycling earlier this week. Before the trucks came by, I noticed someone had taken the recycling bags containing aluminum cans.
I don’t much care. But why would someone bother? I know some charities used to collect the tabs but thought Cecil once said this was an act of goodwill, not because the aluminum was any different.
They’re probably selling it for scrap aluminum value.
The problem is this makes recycling programs harder to run as those cans are the one valuable thing in the recycling stream.
Cans are the most common and easiest to find source of recyclable grade aluminum. That and copper are the most valuable things for scrap hunters.
In some states and provinces. the cans may be redeemed for more than the scrap value of the metal. In Oregon here, for example, the redemption is $.10/can or bottle. This isn’t for all cans and bottles, only those that contained beverages (including bottled water here in Oregon, although possibly not in all places). The redemption money comes from the deposit paid when the beverage was bought.
In places where they have this redemption program, there’s usually lots of people who go around collecting them. Often from recycling and garbage bins.
I am also in Oregon. 10 cents per can can be a significant amount of money for a homeless or destitute person. Leave a bag of cans outside and they will get stolen like it is a bag of money. 10 cans is a dollar and a big bag of recycleable cans be much more.
Makes sense, but my Canadian province does not yet charge deposits. Maybe they’re going to take them across State lines Seinfeld style?
Possibly, but that doesn’t always work. The machines that accept bottles and cans for redemption identify them by the bar code. At least some products have different bar codes for different states/provinces so the machines can reject those ineligible for redemption.
FYI–if you ever look at side of (some) cans or bottles, they list redemption value from different states
My city has an ordinance against going through recycling containers on the street. They’re the property of the homeowner and the recycling company. I doubt that it has ever been enforced, but I see a lot fewer scavengers since then.
I recycle mine. Used to make $50 bucks a load, but it’s gone down. I still do it for … I dunno. Seems a waste to bury that aluminum. I’ll keep doing it.
I’ve always lived in areas where people will come along and pick out the aluminum cans from the curbside recycling. It was never going into the ground. If we’re feeling nice we’ll separate out the cans and leave them on top to make life easier for the pickers. I’m sure it does make the town recycling program less profitable, possibly unprofitable, but such is life.
We don’t have a recycling garbage program where I live. I save up my own aluminum and steel and take it to the recycling company down the road. Don’t make a ton of money off it, but I’m tickled that someone will pay me for what I’m otherwise throwing away and it’s enough for a gallon or three of gas for the vehicle. Then again, I’m just one person and don’t generate that much waste.
If I were really dedicated to this sort of thing and could gather a pickup-load or two a day I’d be making enough to pay for my food for the week or buy toilet paper or whatever.
I hate garbage scavengers, but fortunately the new big tall wheeled bins for recycling make that pretty much impossible now. The thing they mainly used to go after was wine and liquor bottles, because there was a redeemable deposit on those. It’s not worth my while to cart them to the recycling center, but I feel that I’m environmentally responsible as long as I do actually recycle them. The city tells us not to put liquor bottles in recycling because the extra volume of recycling costs them more money, but I looked at my recent property tax bill and decided that they can fuck right off.
I have accumulated a large number of aluminum cans awaiting a new forge so I can melt them down into aluminum ingots which take up much less space. I also have a supply of copper from replacing all the old plumbing with PEX. In the event of an apocalypse, or just finding the time and energy I can make aluminum bronze which is really cool looking and a somewhat useful metal.
I’m assuming you’ve got Dave Gingery’s books on building your own machine tools from scrap - I’ve got a set buried around here [RI…] somewhere, but it looks like they’re still available. Complete Metal Working Shop From Scrap Series ( 7 Individual books)
This is the Way
I have seen the books. They’re incredibly interesting. Long ago I saw a website detailing construction of the Gingery lathe. If I were making machine tools from scratch I’d start with common metal stock though, or modifying existing machines as I’ve done already. I like melting the aluminum mainly for fun and making simple castings.
I thought that soda can lids were made of another metal so that the cans aren’t pure aluminum. So do you separate the lids?
I recycle my soda bottles and take them down to the guy on the corner who pays me to put them in the stinky stinky cans.
Beer cans seem to be the most recycled can and they stink to high heaven.
P U
They are made of different alluminum alloys, but I don’t think that matters much in the recycling process.
The bodies of beverage cans are made of aluminum alloy (Al) 3004, while the ends are made of Al 5182