that's the title of regulation 30:30 from when I was in the military.
I was at another party last night, working the garbage detail, of course. While I was checking the trash, I pulled out 45 aluminum cans, which was probably less than 1/4 of the cans used that night. I was not there at the end of the party to save more.
It kills me to see all that money thrown away. Even more so when it is a high school graduation party or even a Boy Scouts event - our young people are still not being taught to recycle. Even at my niece's graduation parties, I have been the one who set up the recycling. It's not even that hard. I got a trash bag from my car and tied it to the handle of the trash can. The harder part is getting people to use that recycling bag.
Trying to estimate how much gets thrown away, google gives me this
http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/alum.htmwhich says this - "51 percent of aluminum beer and soft drink containers generated were recycled (about 0.7 million tons)."
Meaning that about .67 million tons of aluminum are discarded or 1.34 billion pounds. At 60 cents a pound that is $804 million dollars - every year. That's enough money to provide a $40,000 annual income to over 20,000 families.
Now if there was some way to calculate the value of the drinks that get thrown away still half full (or even 1/6 full) I bet that would run into hundreds of millions.
People, please. Recycle.