What We Do

Capturing the imagination of children through engaging stories involving unicorns will lead them to believe that recycling is like magic! This is the spark that moves them into action much like the characters in the award winning book, The Girl Who Recycled 1 Million Cans. The story explains that a problem exists that they can help solve. Aluminum cans (used beverage containers) are not being recycled and are often found in parks, schools, and in the trash. The book explains how recycling works and that simply picking up discarded cans helps the planet.

Schools participating in the Millions Cans Recycling Contest receive a roll-off bin from a local recycling center (scrapyard) which is typically positioned in the school parking lot for ease of access to students, teachers, and parents. One of the main deterrents to recycling is a lack of convenient drop-off locations. Most recycling centers are located on the outskirts of town making it challenging for on the go families to recycle their beverage containers.

School spirit can be displayed in a variety of ways. One of the most common methods is by competing in sports with other schools. Winning is a good feeling and often brings out the best in each participant. Friendly competition with other schools in various States motivates students to collect as many cans as possible. While collecting the most cans is certainly a motivation, we have added cash prizes for schools that recycle the most cans. The entire school and community come together to become the can champion.

Even though prizes are only awarded to winning schools, aluminum cans are a valuable commodity. Schools in deposit states redeem their cans for the posted value in their State while schools in non-deposit States are paid by the pound for their cans. 35 cans equal 1 pound. At the end of the competition, the recycler connected with each school sends a check for the total amount of cans collected. In some cases, this equates to thousands of dollars which is a significant amount of unexpected funding. Some schools have used these funds to improve playgrounds, purchase gym equipment, and even buy new bleachers.