The Story of Alumie Can

****submitted by Fred Johnson, Vice President of the Bond County Recycling Association***


Alumie Can's first memories of his birth were all the sounds. The tinkling as they bumped into each other and the clanking of the conveyor belts as they whisked through the darkness. When he burst into the light, the scene almost took his breath away. He saw rows and rows of aluminum cans. He was an aluminum can. Alumie was surrounded by his brothers and sisters, the girls were nervously giggling with an occasional shriek, the boys acting bravely, spoke out boldly.

Alumie was wondering what they would be filled with as they sped toward a divider. The girls went off one way, the boys the other. His questions were soon answered as they came into the paint room. He could feel the cool, wet paint as it covered his skin. Then in a reflection of a window, he saw he was a soda can. Like his father, Steele Can, and his grandfather, Coffe Can, before him, he was a beverage container.

As they traveled out of the paint room into a gathering area, he saw that his brothers were painted up as colas, root beer and other stronger sodas. His sisters were painted as the softer drinks like orange, lemon lime and such. Then came the filling room, as the cola filled his insides with its cool liquid, the fizz made his nose itch and tickled his sides. As they sealed his top, he let out a soft burp.

Out of the filling room into the packaging room, he was put into a carton with his brothers. As the top was closing to shroud them in darkness, Alumie began to worry. What was going to happen to him? Then a deep, gruff voice from the corner of the box broke the silence. It was Old Sarge. "Don't worry kid, you will do just fine. This is my third time to be recycled. This trip will be a breeze. You should have been with me on my first trip. Oh, never mind that" he said. "You guys have it made. You colas will be going to a party or a picnic. Some little kid will pick you and when you are empty, he will put you into a recycling bin and you will start all over again."

Old Sarge was right. Alumie and his brothers and sisters made it to a store shelf when one day there was a buzz of talk as a young man came down the aisle. Old Sarge whispered to Alumie, "That young man is youth director for a kid's camp and they recycle their cans." Alumie watched as the young man picked up the cans of his brothers and sisters. He wanted to yell, "Pick me, pick me." Then the young man looked right at Alumie and reached out and picked him up with his strong, gentle hand. He placed Alumie in a basket with his brothers and sisters. Alumie swelled up with pride. He was going to a youth camp and would be recycled.

It was hot and dusty in the camp's store room. Alumie was confused, as this was not what he thought a youth camp would be like. As he let out a soft sigh, he heard the reassuring voice of Old Sarge. "Cheer up kid. Our day will come."

Old Sarge was right again. The next day the lights came on and there was a flurry of activity as the camp director called out orders and the kids began to pull supplied from the shelf. He saw a young boy reach out and pull him from the shelf. Alumie was put into a cooler with some of his brothers and sisters. Then the clinking sound of ice being poured in was cooling them. Alumie's skin tingled partly from the cold ice and the excitement that he felt as the cola inside began to cool.

Once again Old Sarge broke the silence. "See, I told you so. We are going on a picnic." It was a beautiful day. The sun was shinning on the camp's green grass while the kids were running and laughing as they played their games. Then it was lunch time. The table was full of all kinds of food, and the kids gathered in to fill their plates and get their drinks. The young boy who took Alumie from the store room shelf reached into the cooler and pulled Alumie out. The next hour or so went by in a blur and Alumni, now empty, sat on the end of the table with his other empty brothers and sisters.

The Alumie heard the camp leader tell the kids it was time to clean up the area. "Put the cans and other recyclables in the recycling bin." As the kids went about following these instructions, a gust of wind blew Alumie and two of his brothers off the table. He heard some one say, "Pick those cans up before they get lost." A little girl came and picked up Alumie's two brothers. But Alumie had landed under the table in the tall grass and the little girl didn't see him. He heard the leader say, "Let's look around one more time before we leave." Alumie's hopes raised as the little girl came back and looked under the table. But, she didn't see him laying there.

Alumie lay there all alone as he heard the bus start up and the kids running to get back on for the ride to the camp. Oh how he wished Old Sarge was there to comfort him.

It was quiet in the park and the sun was getting low in the sky. Alumie was scared and began to whimper. But a noise made him stop and he lay still and listened. Something was coming. He could see a small black and white animal that was sniffing around. He lay real still as they animal pressed his cold, wet nose to Alumie's open top. The animal took a couple of sniffs and moved on.

Alumie was about to let out a sigh of relief, but another gust of wind blew a paper against the table leg. Alumie called out to the paper for help, but the paper frowned and said, "Be quiet and lay still. The maintenance crew is coming. Everything they pick up goes straight to the land fill. Your only hope is to make it through the night when an elderly couple comes to look for recyclable items. Got to go," the paper said, as a puff of wind blew him along.

Alumie lay as still and quiet as he could as he heard a voice say, "Let's go. It's getting late and the land fill will be closing." Alumie could see the scuffed toe of the work boot next to the table. Maybe he had not been seen. Then a coarse, dirty hand reached down and pulled Alumie from under the table. His worse fears had been realized as the hand tossed him into the back of a truck piled high with soiled plates and other garbage. Alumie landed on top of the pile next to a half eaten hot dog. The man said, "We will have to drive fast if we want to get to the landfill before they close." Alumie heard the truck engine start up. With a lurch and a jump the truck was flying down the road to the land fill. As they were leaving the camp grounds the truck hit a speed bump and the stuff in the back of the truck flew all around the truck bed. Alumie hit and rolled toward the back of the truck and with one more roll he was out and falling onto the road. His joy was short lived as he saw another truck coming right at him. He rolled with all his might for the side of the road. The big tire missed crushing his thin sides, but blew him off into a deep ditch.

Alumie was feeling pretty good about his escape until he looked around. The ditch was covered with forgotten recyclable papers, plastic bottles and things. But what gripped him with fear was the dented, faded soda can. Alumie called out to him, "How long have you been here?" he asked. The old, lost soda can sadly shook his head and said, "I don't know. I have lost all track of time."

Alumie drifted off, into a restless sleep, surrounded by all the lost recyclables. He awoke the next morning to the sound of a car coming slowly down the road. A woman's voice said, "Stop the car. I see something in that ditch." Alumie looked up to see a grandmotherly lady with white work gloves on. She reached into the ditch and began picking up the recyclables. He saw the gloved hand reach down to him and felt the warm glove pick him up. He was placed gently into a box with the other recyclable aluminum cans. Then he heard her say, "This box is full. Let's go to the recycling bin."

A few minutes later, Alumie was dumped into the big recycling dumpster with the other cans. He landed with a bump that put one more dent into his scratched and dented skin. But he didn't care, because now he felt safe.

As he went over the events of the last few days, some one nudged his side and he heard Old Sarge say, "Glad to see you made it, kid." Alumie thought that he had heard a catch in Old Sarge's voice and it sounded a little softer.

As Alumie leaned against Old Sarge and drifted off to sleep, he welled up with pride because he knew that he had fulfilled his destiny. He would be recycled.

What Can I Recycle - Dos and Donts

There seems to be lots of confusion as to exactly what you can and can't recycle.

Here are a few things I know for sure, and just a few things I suggest.

The number one rule of all is to know where your recycling is headed, meaning what facility/company is it going to, then find out what their rules are. You see, one place may take certain things where as another may not.

Ted's Recycling bales it's own cardboard and handles it's own aluminum. They are a recycling island unto themselves. Their rules apply.

Doty's bin near the tracks, however, goes to the Montgomery County Recycling Facility in Hillsboro, IL. So the rules of this facility apply to what goes into Doty's bin.

The Green Fiber bins around town belong to a company that makes insulation. They have their own rules to follow. Usually these are on the side of the bin. They do not want ANYTHING with food contamination.

So, onward. There is a big controversy over pizza boxes. Some say don't recycle because Ug! there is food in it. Some say just do it. What is our situation in Greenville?

Well, it just so happens that I asked an employee of the Montgomery County Recycling Facility recently, "Can we recycle pizza boxes?". Her answer was "Yes!" Her reason being that they are allowed 5% contamination in each bale of cardboard that they produce.

Now - this means a little grease spot is OK, but if your pizza box is crusted over with melted cheese and black olives glued to it, I'd perhaps think twice. Try to clean it off as much as possible, and if you can't, then rip off the lid or any part that isn't covered in cheese. However, if its just a few crumbs that can't be shook out and a little grease circle where the pizza was then recycle away!

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are using the Green Fiber bins that are found around town, then you MAY NOT recycle your pizza boxes. They do not want any food at all in there bins. This takes us back to the most important rule of all found above. Know where your recyclables are going and follow the rules of that facility.

Another fine thing to know: Doty, which again, takes it's stuff to the Montgomery County Facility in Hillsboro, only takes steel and aluminum cans. Aluminum cans only are allowed at this facility. If you have other aluminum stuff that can be recycled then take it to Ted's Recycling. They recycle ALL kinds of aluminum. I asked once if they take pie pans, tin foil, tops of yogurt containers, etc. They said they would if they are completely clean and have no food on them.

Another question: Can you leave the paper labels on glass or steel cans? The answer is yes. The Montgomery County Facility does allow labels on their cans. However, I entreat you to just take an extra second or two and rip them off. Why? Because they can be put in your paper recycling. Just think of all the paper on cans that can be recycled. The same goes for glass jars. Those are a little harder to get off, so don't freak out if you can't. There is actually a cleaning process by which these are taken off in the recycling facilities. But if you can get if off without too much trouble then why not?

I have been asked about the plastic paper windows in envelopes. Again, (you should know the mantra by now) it depends on where you are recycling. Some companies, like Montgomery Co. Recycling want their paper and magazines and such separated. In this case, I would guess that you shouldn't put the plastic window in with paper. (This is a guess and I plan on asking next time I'm there) The Green Fiber bins are another place that I would say, "no" to the plastic windows. As their name suggests, they are after fibrous material. However, if you are taking your paper to Ted's, they take paper, newspaper, magazines, office paper all together in a big bin that says, "Mixed Paper". In this case I think it's OK.

Three last things:

1. Don't panic if you do something wrong. It's OK. You are taking action and making an effort. The only way to do it is just to start and learn as you go. Soon you will be answering other peoples piercing recycling questions.

2. As a general rule, please wash out your recycling. Contamination is not a great thing and it doesn't take a great imagination to think about what a recycling site (like our Doty dumpster) would be like if there was food everywhere. I don't know about you, but I don't want to encounter rodents of any kind. There is inevitably some contamination in the process, however, we can help out the facilities and make their job more productive by washing out our stuff.

3. Think about composting all the food stuff you are scraping out of your recyclables. A huge chunk of what goes into landfills is food. This is really sad, because food in plastic bags emits methane gas which contributes greatly to global warming. People don't realize this fact. However, if food is composted, it's methane release is minor, and it produces rich soil that can be used on vegetable gardens with great results. (read my other posts on composting- or check out one of my green links on how to start composting)

note: you don't have to waste lots of water to do this. Let things soak. Rinse them right away before they get hard. Put glass and some plastic in the dish washer.

I would be glad to entertain any more questions at any time, and I will let you know as I learn too.

Happy recycling!