…it would have been about right.
I mentioned in 2018 that I had been saving aluminum cans since we moved to Nogglestead, and I only had half of a garbage can full at that time.
Well, my boys have discovered canned soda, and the oldest has been buying it himself for a while. So we ended up with a full can, a large bag, and a partially full bag (and a crushed piece of downspout which was only a couple years old and cost more than pennies when we had it installed). As scrap yards are not open on weekends here in Springfield, we loaded them up and took them to the near north side of Springfield this weekend, and we got…
$19.25. Which is about a dollar and a quarter per year that we’ve been collecting the cans.
55 pounds sounds about right. But that tare weight: 20 pounds. They took all of the cans out of the bags and cans and put them into cages so they could see what was in them before weighing them, so it’s not like they had to account for steel garbage cans. Do they normally apply that much to account for the moisture in the cans? Or did they rook me of $5 to increase their profit that scant amount? I mean, the scale doesn’t have numbers on it; it’s connected to a computer that I couldn’t see, and I didn’t get a receipt from it until I got my receipt and money at the window in another building.
I am a cynic and a misanthrope to even think it, but I am a cynic and a misanthrope.
Of course, today, I come out to sort my other recycling into the bins I take to the government recycling center (that is, an alternative route to the landfill for my refuse which keeps me from having to have two waste containers for pickup), and my son has put a Diet Coke can in it. I could add another bin or small can for me to take an accumulation to the city recycling center (which accepts aluminum cans dropped off as well as paper, cardboard, steel cans, and plastic). But, more likely, I will start the process all over again. But when the time comes some years hence to redeem them, I will not make a special trip. It is certainly not worth that.
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