I was in the QCAC doing homework with a friend and I noticed that there was a significant amount of metal soda cans in the trash and recycling. There must have been a party or event the night before for so many cans to be piled in there. I come from Florida where there is no deposit fee for cans or glass so coming to school in Massachusetts I was excited to see how that affects the recycling in the area. For those who were partying in here earlier I guess it did not influence them enough to save the cans. But it gave me an idea! My friend collects metal cans for the 5 cent deposit each and I now just gained nearly one dozen of them. I ended up letting him know and he met me at the QCAC to pick the cans out. The nice thing about the cans being inside and fresh they did not have any maggots or ants on them like the ones by the dumpster (that was horrifying to pick up without gloves). These cans just needed a quick rinse to get the syrupy soda out and they were ready to be put in the pile. These were fairly easy to retrieve compared to other waste I have taken out of the trash.

I have also experimented with making pencil holders with soda cans, which was a bit difficult due to my lack of proper cutting equipment. I hope to explore more of diverting waste into crafts. I think I would prefer to work with other materials since aluminum cans are much easier to recycle compared to their plastic relatives. I was happy to save some of the cans from the trash and ensure they were actually recycled unlike much of the recycled materials aren’t. An empty can is seen as something that has lost its initial purpose but there is still value even after it no longer holds a person’s drink. With bottle deposits and through crafts.