Now Part Of the Club

Do you ever wonder what the three R’s stand for? Maybe you think of reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic. If you look at the bottom of a plastic jug, you will see the symbol of three chasing arrows in a triangle. It means to reduce, reuse, recycle.

When Mom and Dad go on their jog, I sometimes tag-along to pick up cans to recycle. I find them mostly alongside the road. I am looking for steel, aluminum, or copper, also. The typical person has the chance to recycle more than 25,000 cans in a lifetime. Beside the house, I keep my bags stored and any time I get cans, I smash them and put them in the old feed bag I have.

Recently I collected two and a half bags full of aluminum cans. When I told Dad, he said we could take them to the T and T Recycling place. I was so excited that I loaded the cans up right away. 

Every three months, Americans throw enough aluminum in the landfills to repair America’s commercial fleet of airplanes. It made me happy that my cans would make me some money instead.

After a nice drive, we made it there and put my cans on the scale. The cans gathered in my bags weighed fourteen pounds. I stood watching as the men moved my cans from the scale into the crusher. It smashed the aluminum into large cubes. Afterward, the workers gave us a receipt to give to the lady inside.

We walked into the building where I would get paid. Going straight to the counter, I handed my receipt to the lady. She handed me back the slip along with some cash. She then gave me a whole lesson on what could be recycled and what could not be recycled. It was very interesting. She even gave me a magnet to test metals. If it doesn’t stick, the metal is copper, aluminum, brass, or stainless steel- all good materials for recycling.

As soon as I got home, I got to work on our junk pile. There are lots of metals to sort through. Now I’m officially part of the T and T recycling club! I’m very happy to be part of the people who are recycling. I like recycling not only because it helps me gain a lot of money, but it helps conserve nature, and helps save energy.

~Unique