A Year of Blogging: September 27, 2011

September 27 is 'Crush a Can Day'. For all the days that there's been something interesting to write about, or the days that I've had to choose from one of a multitude of things to write about, then there are the days like today. 'Crush a Can Day'. That's it. I don't know what the purpose is of crushing cans. I know people do it. We were quickly trained by my Dad not to do it. New York State has had a five cent deposit on all cans and bottles (like beer and soda) since I was a child. If you return the empty can to a participating store you get your five cents back. My father is a big supporter of the deposit program. As he walks along the road, he picks up bottles and cans. When he worked for Caterpillar, he'd take all the soda cans that the guys threw out after their lunch. Some people might think it's odd. Ok, we do a little too. But as Dad says, if you don't take the cans back, you are throwing money away. Dad always has a milk crate next to the garage filled with cans he has picked up. When he gets a good collection, he washes the cans and takes them back to the store and gets his money. You don't have to wash the cans, but Dad always felt it was nice to do. Washing cans is disgusting! Especially if the cans are ones he picked up on the road. However, when I went to work at a grocery store in high school, I had a new found appreciation for my Dad washing the cans. One of my jobs was to take the returned cans down to the basement and sort them by distributor. The cans were not always empty, so you ended up smelling like a brewery. It was the job I reserved for the end of the day on a Saturday. That way, I could go straight home and get a shower! If the cans are too damaged, or crushed flat, you can't tell who the distributor is. Many times the stores will not accept crushed cans. So Dad always told us not to crush the cans. If you did, you were throwing away the nickel. It might seem like Dad was obsessed with this. The 'can money' went into the piggy bank, and many times was our mad money on vacation. And not only were we putting money in our pockets, we were also helping the environment by recycling. I wish we knew how much money Dad has gotten from picking up cans. I'm sure it's in the thousands of dollars! If you live in a state without a deposit (such as Ohio), it's ok to crush the can. But if your state has a deposit on the can, think twice before you crush that can. Sure, one nickel isn't going to make you rich. Twenty cans is a dollar. Yeah, you really can't buy much with a dollar either. Once you start returning the cans though, you could find yourself saving money for something special. It makes the hassle all worth it!