2 million cans

justruth

Hi everyone, thanks for your enthusiasm and canteen humour!

Tirlittan - Yes it's a bit of a trek for me to get the cans to the nearest tescos with a recycling centre, and while I have previously gone down the points route, I need the cash more than clubcard rewards which could technically work out better. Also at Tescos you don't have to wash them, however if you're going to store them and transport them it's a good idea. The machine doesn't always recognise a sticky can.

Whizzing - If you look on the tesco website at green rewards they have a list of centres. The £600 is a quote from the Novellis processors for loose used beverage cans which are cleaned, and that is for a metric tonne (1000kg). As different cans have different weights it's hard to say how many but as I weighed a redbull can to be around 10g I make that 100,000 cans. To transport that weight of cans, never mind sheer size of delivery would require a vehicle greater than my little motor, however there are smaller regional scrappers who will take the cleaned used beverage cans, but obviously at a lower price. For this reason and for simplicity in goal setting I decided that 2,000,000 cans was the number I needed. The price does vary though and it is worthwhile phoning the scrap dealers first to find out how much they pay and the minimum amount of cans they accept.

Tesco offer 1 point for every 2 cans, however on the rewards deals you can get up to 4x as much from your vouchers making each can worth up to 2p. I have collected points before but as previously mentioned the nearest recycling centre is quite a distance and what I really need to clear debt is cash.

Hannah_10 - As it goes I often work pubs and clubs so already on the raid but I have found that you have to be careful how you present the idea, some club owners have got funny as soon as they realised I was going to earn money from the cans and decided to collect for themselves. Also have found that staff throughout the night are not always as keen to separate cans despite them often naturally being produced separate to other waste types.

Monkeyballs - I see where you're coming from, definitely worth a try, however 140 stella cans is equivalent to about 70p. Still, do they know that???

Lottebear - I haven't got so far as to pick them up off the street yet but actually considering it. Especially as when I come home from work there are often many to be found!

Ultimately I am starting slow but might see how many there are about at 5.30am on Monday morning, when I finish work. I need to sort out a lot of things in my flat before inundating myself with empty cans, but not going to throw any away in the short term.

Hannah_10

JustRuth this whole idea is slightly nuts, which is why I absolutly adore it! I am so rooting for you now, I so do want you to succeed and clear your debt with 2 million aluminium cans, how amazing would that be! Then you can write a book/ magazine feature on it and have the money earned from that as a little reward for all your ingenuity and effort. Keep photographs and a diary wont you, it's well worth the little extra bother because this (if you can pull it off) will be one of those great little stories in the book of your life... It might even be a great little story in a book someone pays you money to print!

whizzing

Thanks for your reply. Where do you live? Maybe I could bring all my "spare" cans to you !!!! I am going to see if I can find a Tesco recycling near me as we go through lots of cans (very bad I know but it is my only caffeine source) and we also save a lot of Tesco points for meals out and weekends away.

SuzySu

Loving this thread - what a fantastic idea!!

415SanFran

when I lived in California we would put out all recyclable preety much like in the UK nowadays.
Before the "can wagon"got around to our street you could bet that a person would have been round to get all the drinks cans first.
Are you up for going through everyone's red boxes, in the "wee small hours" can't see anyone complaining.
I heard of one woman who used to do this and gave all the money to the equivalent of the PDSA.

Barneysmom

http://www.tesco.com/greenerliving/greener_tesco/what_tesco_is_doing/tesco_recycling_centre_locations.page?

That's the list of recycling places Tesco have.



Tesco greener Living.....

http://www.tesco.com/greenerliving/greener_tesco/what_tesco_is_doing/tesco_automated_recycling_centres.page?

justruth

Well so far not doing overwhelmingly great, just have to get over myself and the stigma of asking for someones 'rubbish'. Was at a festival this weekend (working) that was attended by more than 10,000 people; all of whom were drinking from cans. Unfortunately due to the amount of work equipment I was carrying didn't manage to bring any back with me but did note the cleaning company so may ask what they do with their waste.

Current number of cans is still only 34, the club that said I could have their cans quite reasonably expects me to provide containers to have on the bar to collect the cans. I did go to raid the bins only to find the collection day had changed, possibly due to bank holiday.

Hannah_10- I agree it's totally bizarre and at this rate will be a very old woman by the time I reach 2million cans, however I think it's one of those things that is going to build in momentum as I work things out. As for the writing a book, it's a good plan. Perhaps I should look into how to start a blog? Not sure it would be overly interesting at the moment but still, as I reach completion might be entertaining.

Whizzing - I live in London, Elephant and Castle, and I would happily take your cans however please really consider the points as I'm quite a fan of the rewards programme. I am currently having a fitness first membership for £16 of clubcard points to boost my fitness after nearly a year of slacking off (and getting fat!). This equates to 3200 cans!

415SanFran- I had considered taking cans from the recycling bins around here but decided against as councils gain money (in the same way I hope to) from this collection. This helps reduce everyones council tax by reducing landfill penalties and creating an income stream from the waste. It would feel like stealing, as people put the cans in these bins for this purpose; the landfill bins and streets however are mine!!!!!

The biggest problems that I have to overcome are my own perceptions, I walk down the street and see several cans discarded (big beer ones at that!), but I won't pick them up because I don't want people to see me. Also mildly embarrassed to ask companies for their waste. After that there is the girlfriend who is entirely less than enthusiastic about the concept of me bringing home mountains of used beverage cans, I do have a problem with drainage in my flat so the whole rinsing situation may be a little trying, but working on that. As she is planing on moving in for a trial period in November I have lots of other more pressing things I should be doing with my time than playing aluminium can millionaire! Still all these niggles are easily overcome, my girlfriend is quite used to me getting all enthusiastic about silly things like this and would be happier for me to be debt free too. If someone offered me the cash to overcome my pride on this small scale I am sure I would do so for a lot less than my debt being cleared.

Have decided to see how much space 1000 cans takes up, see if I can fit 10,000 in the space I have before making my first can deposit. 1,999,966 cans till I'm debt free!

buddys_mum

Justruth, as you are very good at working things out, could you tell me approx how many cans i would be needed to make up a tonne?


I think ive just worked it out to be about 33p- 50p per kilo - right?

Many Thanks

justruth

Different cans weigh different amounts so I couldn't put an exact figure on it, but based on my measuring out 10 redbull cans to make 100g I think a conservative estimate of 10g a can is suitable as then you are more likely to be over than under in weight.

Please correct me if my maths is wrong, is this actually a 2 billion challenge and I just haven't converted right?

I make 10 cans = 100g, so 100 cans = 1kg.
Therefore I make 100,000 cans = 1000kg or 1 tonne.

buddys_mum

Is it the shiny bottomed cans that we want isnt it, rather than the dull ones?