Horst Happenings....: Re-Looking at Re-Cycling, Really

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Re-Looking at Re-Cycling, Really

On an earlier post, gee way back in December of 2007, I was discussing the merits and money for recycling aluminum cans. Granted I am more interested in the money I get back instead of the nice warm feeling I get for help the earth survive for one more day. In the earlier post I said that I was paid 60 cents per pound on aluminum cans. Well folks, I am here to tell you that I went by this morning and the price is 80 cents per pound. I took 'em to Lipsitz Metals On south Loop 340 once again. They are paying the same price as the outfit on South IH-35 by Bruceville-Eddy that was closed today.

In December 2007 I took 54 pounds and got $32.40. If I had waited till today I could have gotten $43.20. That's nearly $11.00 for sitting around and waiting. Today I took 34 pounds and walked out with $27.20. Now I really think I should have waited. If I had waited I could walked out with $70.40 for 88 pounds.

Honestly now I'm beginning to think I should have kept it all at home for another 5 or 6 months. This means I will have added another 30 - 40 pounds to the collection and maybe the price will be $1.00 per pound and I would be able to pocket $110 -$120.

My luck though the market will crash and I'd only get a mere pittance.

Let's look at my earlier math and update it with the current numbers:

Now, let's look at the numbers behind the numbers. Thanks to modern manufacturing techniques there are approximately 33.5 cans to make a pound. In 1980 that number was 25 cans per pound. That is why the cans seem so much thinner now. I can remember when I was in junior high and high school guys would show off by tearing an aluminum can in half. I did that recently and was proud of the fact that I could still do it. Then I learned that I could do it because the cans are made a lot thinner these days. So much for the feelings of youth from days gone by. Back to the numbers. So let's see; 34 pounds multiplied by 33.5 cans/pound equals 1139 cans. If you divide 1139 cans by 12 cans in a 12 pack you get 94.92 packs. Let's just say 95 packs. Now we can have fun. My $27.20 divided by 95 packs equals approximately 29 cents per twelve pack. (That is 7 cents better than last time.) (Here's the rub, the price for drinks has gone up also. Let's use a sale price of $3.33 per. That's generally the price here when they go on sale.) If I spent an average of $3.33 per twelve pack to buy the 95 packs of drinks that means I spent $316.35 in order to make $32.40. OH MY!

Let's look at it another way. If I spent $3.04 per twelve pack ($3.33 sale price less the 29 cents made from recycling the twelve cans) that means each can would cost a little over 25 cents. Sometimes it is better to look at the little picture than it is to look at the overall big picture. The big picture can get cluttered up with lots of silly numbers that lead us away from the overall goal which is the fact that each can is worth a little over 2 cents each. (At the last post the price per can was a little under 2 cents. So I guess this is still a money making proposition, of sorts!) Keep that in mind the next you chunk a can out the window. "Hey honey! There went 2 cents."