Recycling And The Environment....

Today we found 66 cents in change and 101 bottles and cans.

Recycling and the environment – Andy, over at “The Found Money Jar” got me thinking today. As many of you know, I’ve been aggressively recycling cans and bottles (glass, aluminum, and plastic) for some time now. I was telling him how I thought that my carbon footprint had to be negative and that I should sell carbon offsets because of the amount of Carbon Dioxide I’m keeping from entering the atmosphere.

Well, as I said earlier, it got me thinking, not about selling credits, but about just how much effect my recycling habits have on my carbon footprint. I found good source that calculates the different materials to their oil/energy equivalent. First I did the calculation for the plastic bottles, which made up about 62 ½ percent of the total. I figure on average (again these are rough estimates) each bottle weighed on about 1 ounce. I took into consideration the 2-liter bottles and other odd sizes, as well as the small water bottles like Poland Spring and Aquafina. The figure in pounds came in at 663. Next, I did the Aluminum cans. Again, I weighed the various sizes and frequency of the cans found. I figured each can to weigh approximately .03 Ounces, and I figured about 3 cans per ounce. Using that calculation I came up with 115 pounds or 32 ½ percent of the overall recycled containers. Finally, I did the glass, which made up about 5 percent or so of the total. Again, weighing various containers, I came up with an average of 10 ounces per container. The total here was 1,272 pounds.

When I did my calculations for all three against the fuel necessary to create them, I came up with a total of roughly 435 gallons, or 10 ½ barrels of oil. Now I’m just one person, but imagine if just one in 1000 did what I’m doing, and that’s not even taking into account the measures we already have in place, things cfl’s, reduced car use, recycling paper and cardboard products as well our curbside recycling of glass jars, tin cans and the like. You can see how much of a difference one person can make. Want an easy way to reduce your carbon footprint? How about planting a tree or two.

Money Report – While coin finding was pretty good, it did start off slowly. After stopping at the post office to mail some packages, I headed to Hannaford’s supermarket to pick up a few grocery items. While there, I found one penny and a uk 1 cent new penny. Apparently they made them from 1971 to 1981.

The rest of the loot came via the evening walk. Walking through the rite aid parking lot we found one penny. Then, at the car wash, we added in another 61 cents (2 quarters, 1 nickel and 6 pennies). All of the coins were found in and around the vacuum areas. Michele found the final 3 cents in the parking lot at school.

Good Night and Good Hunting~

Money Totals for 2007 – 76.52
Money Totals since Jan. 2005 – 399.51

Bottle and Can totals for 2007 – 2,121 – 106.25
Bottle and Can totals since Jan. 2005 – 29,718 – 1,485.90