First collecting

Hey all,

So Saturday night was my first try at collecting. I went out around 9:30 and got back at around 11:00. I stopped at a liquor store in IV to get a cardboard box to aid in holding the cans. A side note, I paid 59 for a thing of sunflower seeds, which I'm still enjoying as of post-time. They are a great deal, whatever flavor you decide to go with. So anyway, my bike looked something like this:


I biked the length of Del Playa and it wasn't long until my basket was full. In fact, at the end of DP, where it turns into a park overlooking the ocean, I had to turn away a case of empty 40s (shown on the ground). At 10 cents a pop, that would have easily been another buck:


Overall, I was really impressed by the whole scene. Both school and summer-school aren't in session; the roughly 5,000 freshman won't be here for another two weeks, and yet it was still more partying than I've ever seen my life (outside of previous visits to IV).

In my whole time I only saw one "Gaucho" (UCSB students have given the schools namesake to the can collectors). He was on the outskirts of IV and I'm not even sure he was collecting. I'll bet that I was probably a little too early in the night.

When I got back at home I lined one drawer of my desk with a water-proof Ikea bag, and filled it up. The drawer keeps it sealed and the bag keep any swill from seeping out:


You might notice that all of the tabs are missing; I've been told that you can turn in the tabs en mass on their own as scrap aluminum, and that the can will still be valid for the CRV. I was at a party a few days ago, and I was told that a full one-gallon milk carton can be traded in for a free keg.

All in all, the venture was a greater success than I has anticipated. I won't have an accurate count until I turn the cans in, but I'm guessing I grossed somewhere around $2. At the very least it should cover the 59 cent sunflower seeds. Next time I'll be sure to crush the cans as I collect them, so I can hold more w/o going back. I might try to figure out a way to attach boxes so my basket can hold more.

More to come later this week!
-Charles

P.S.: If you have any questions, post a comment. I'll try to comment back if I can.

Did you know...?

Hello all,

So on today's post I'm going to give a quick lesson on can collection and my plans surrounding it. I promise you will be the belle of the ball when you impress your friends with all of your knowledge of container recycling. Of course, you could also read a good article about the subject of container-deposit legislation:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container-deposit_legislation

So, how exactly does can collection work?

1. Collect cans
2. ?????
3. Profit!

In actuality, it's a pretty nifty process:

• First, you collect your cans (whether by simply saving your empties or dumpster-diving)
• Once you have a sizable amount, you bring them to a reverse vending machine (which is exactly what is sounds like: the machine gives you the money and you give it a can). The picture above is of a RVM (via wikipedia, copyright cleared).
  
• I collect my earnings and take down statistics.
  

Like a shark that hunts schools of fish, my plan is going to be to dumpster dive where students drink en mass: parties on Del Playa are an obvious choice. The CRV (California Redemption Value), so if I hope to achieve any sort of real wage I'll need to maximize efficiency. In the same vein as Moneyball or Robert McNamara, I'm going to take careful statistics of my collection. I'll post my running tally in a google-docs spreadsheet every time I post, and I hope that I can identify when and where I can earn the most.

If you're curious, yes you can also collect glass, although that pays out at a bulk rate (roughly 10 cents a pound), and may be harder to carry around (glass is pretty heavy when you think about it).

I also may have a competitive advantage in collecting around where I live, which is a quasi-gated apartment building exclusive to graduate students. My one concern is that I may face strong competition from the career can collectors- mostly Mexican immigrants who collect cans to supplement their income. I hope to learn more about these people as I get into the whole process (not a whole lot is known about thier own organization), and ultimately my goal is to write about them.

In the meantime, I hope everyone's summer is going well! Talk to you all soon,

-Charles

Welcome to C3: California Can Collection!

This blog is going to start in Sept. 2009. It will be about my adventures trying to make money by collecting cans in California for the CRV redemption while I begin grad school at UCSB.

See you in September!