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."

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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Earth Day 2008

So as not to waste the precious few resources that this earth has left and in honor of Earth Day 2008 I am recycling one of my earlier posts.

Here it is:

GOING GREEN

Did I miss something?

Apparently the color of choice has changed. I have always liked the color blue. The new color of choice is GREEN.

We got the April 2008 Country Living magazine in the mail recently. Green; REUSE; RECYCLE; REFRESH; The whole thing. On the inside it had The Country Living Green Guide; 50+ Ways To Make A Difference. I like #17 - Bulb Basics. It suggests that you drop the incandescent and go with the Compact Fluorescent. I've done that in part of the house. I don't like it. I turn 'em on and what do you think they do? They splutter and flicker and start out dim and have to warm up to get brighter. For an old man that makes it hard to see right away. They cost so much I feel like I need to use them instead of chucking 'em and starting all over again with the good old fashioned, heat throwing incandescents.

Same thing with the April 2008 issue of Metropolitan Home. This time Renovation Goes Green. They purport to have advice from top eco-experts. I don't know. I didn't read it. It wasn't my cup of Green Tea.

And now to top it all off I saw an ad from Wal-Mart touting Campbell's Tomato and Chicken Noodle Soup for Earth Day as being green and good for the environment. The label is green and the ad informs us that the can is recyclable; like it wasn't before? The ad also tells us that it costs less in packaging and to ship it because it is condensed. ????

It's always been condensed. So isn't it really the same as before?

I suppose that green is the new gold and if you advertise that your product is green then everyone will flock to it.

Sounds good to me. I think I'll try it!

For the rest of this week this blog is going GREEN in an effort to REUSE, RECYCLE, and REFRESH. By doing this Horst Household Happenings will now be eco-friendly, it will cost less to package and ship, and best of all save all coastlines of the world by keeping the polar ice caps frozen. Somehow the color green does this. I think it has to do with the way the heat energy from the sun is absorbed or something by the green instead of focusing it's deadly powers on the polar ice caps.

PS: Let me know by Saturday if you think I should keep the blog green or revert back to my tacky energy wasting ways on Sunday.

© 2008 Barry T Horst This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please visit the Giveaway of the Day at the bottom of the page for free software downloads daily.

I told you I was recycling today. I picked up the whole thing and dropped it right in here, credits and all. Cool huh?

© 2008 Barry T Horst This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please visit the Giveaway of the Day at the bottom of the page for free software downloads daily.