Who went around collecting cans as a kid?

[DCal430]

As a kid, who went around the neighborhood looking through people trash cans to collect aluminum cans to recycle?

I know I did this, and a few other people I know did this.

 

[coldmeat]

I did once to raise money for a class trip to Montreal. I just went to the dump though, and went through the dumpster.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Were your parents hippies? That sounds like something the child of hippy parents would do. As an adolescent I remember asking my parents if I could keep a beautiful deep blue empty vodka bottle on the side of the road, but they said no.

 

[LumbergTech]

my friends and I used to do that...we were often broke and it was a way to get a soda or something

 

[Skitzer]

Used to collect bottles occasionally.

 

[Crono]

No, didn't feel like competing with the homeless people.

 

[ScoobMaster]

When I was a kid we collected all the "pull-tabs" that were torn off the beer/soda cans and made chains out of them. There were littered all over the ground everywhere at racetracks and sports fields under the grandstands.

They looked like this:

 

[highland145]

Used to collect bottles occasionally.

iirc, coke bottles were worth $.05.

When I was a kid we collected all the "pull-tabs" that were torn off the beer/soda cans and made chains out of them. There were littered all over the ground everywhere at racetracks and sports fields under the grandstands.

They looked like this:

Those were the days. Except for the choking hazard.

 

[KB]

When I lived in a state where grocery stores paid you for aluminum by weight, I did this. It felt good being paid to save landfill space and clean up litter.

 

[Linflas]

When I was a kid we collected bottles to take to the 7-Eleven or grocery store to turn in for the deposit. Back then it was only 2 cents per bottle but we could generally find enough to pay for whatever small stuff we wanted to buy like candy or a Guillows balsa glider.

 

[Sephire]

I did and still are. It pays for blu-rays and pizza.

 

[thebestMAX]

We saved cans too. Cut both ends off, inserted them into the cans and crushed them flat.

Later in life we used to save all our empty beer cans. Every few months we would cash them in and buy.........more beer!!!

Dont know if this was common practice but when I was a kid the dry cleaners would buy used wire clothes hangers. I seem to remember getting a penny for every 5 hangers.

 

[ShawnD1]

I collected cans, but that was back when cans were actually worth something.
soft drink cans and bottles = 5 cents
beer cans and bottles = 10 cents

That was in 1990. Scaled for about 3% inflation, a beer can would be worth about 18.6 cents in today's money. That's not bad.

 

[bignateyk]

I did and still are. It pays for blu-rays and pizza.

You dig through peoples garbage to collect cans to turn in for deposit to pay for pizza?

Why not cut out the middle man and just dig through peoples garbage for leftover pizza?

 

[Aves]

Yep. Many bags of chips, candy and soda were purchased with that money.

Gotta love the CRV.

 

[nanette1985]

Absolutely. That 2 cents a can may not sound like much but back then you could get enough gas for serious cruising for a quarter.

I'm old.

 

[highland145]

Absolutely. That 2 cents a can may not sound like much but back then you could get enough gas for serious cruising for a quarter.

I'm old.

Pretty sure you and I are near the same.

 

[MiniDoom]

use to climb through brush to collect golf balls, clean them and resell them to golfers for money.

 

[ShawnD1]

Absolutely. That 2 cents a can may not sound like much but back then you could get enough gas for serious cruising for a quarter.

I'm old.

Deposit in my neck of the woods went up recently so now non-alcoholic containers are 10 cents. When I bought some store brand bottled water, the deposit on the bottles actually exceeded the cost of the bottled water.

25 cents / 2 cents = 12 cans for serious cruising
12 cans today = $1.20 for cruising
Right now gasoline is $1.10/L in my city and my city gas mileage was 8.2L/100km last fill up. (100km/8.2L)*(1L/1.1 dollar) * (1.2 dollar) = 13.3km of cruising around. That's only about 8.3 miles :awe:

 

[Gigantopithecus]

I grew up in Michigan, where cans & bottles have a ten cent deposit on them. 'As a kid...?' Ha, my best friend and I used to drive his pick up truck around Michigan State's campus when we were in high school collecting cans the students would just throw on the lawn and street. We'd collect cans from 11pm until 3am then feed the machines at Meijer from 3am until 4am. We'd usually make $200-300 each, which is not bad money for ~4 hours of work when you're 16.

 

[Modelworks]

I'm old enough to have started with collecting glass bottles for return, then later cans. Now it doesn't pay well. The cans they make are so much thinner you need too many to make it worthwhile. Those shapes in the can are not there for looks, but to make it so they can make cans thinner and still have them hold the contents.

 

[ShawnD1]

Those shapes in the can are not there for looks, but to make it so they can make cans thinner and still have them hold the contents.

Actually that's not true. In high school we calculated what dimensions a cylinder should have in order to get the most volume with the least surface area. The answer was the most awkward shape ever. IIRC, the diameter of the can was roughly equal to the height of the can. The diameter was too big for an average person to hold.
Cans have their current shape to make them easier to hold.

Also, the deposit is all taxes. It has nothing to do with the cost of the material. A water bottle might be less than a 1 cent worth of plastic, but the deposit is 5 or 10 cents so people don't throw them in the garbage or litter.

 

[SandEagle]

we did this in detroit. you got 10 cents for each can or bottle. used to return them to rent movies,video games, and buy pizza.

 

[Maximilian]

The poor kids did? :\

 

[Arcadio]

Oh... man.. this brings back tons of memories of growing up in a third world country. My dad used to take me for long walks down the road from my town to the next town, looking for empty cans. We were broke back then....