October 22nd, 2008 by AllStudentRentals.com

Having a positive effect on the environment is rapidly becoming the number one concern of do-gooders across the nation. Recycling, while actually a decades old concept, is becoming more prevalent with each passing day, and not just among yuppie SUV drivers hoping to offset their massive carbon footprint. People in college are becoming more and more aware of their responsibility to make at least a small effort in the uphill battle against environmental degradation. The easiest and most economical way to accomplish this is by recycling. Most waste management companies already give you a trash and a recycling can when you sign up for the service, so why not use both for their intended purposes. If you decide that it is simply not worth it to take the time to separate your trash into two bins and get nothing in return, think about this other possibility: recycling can earn you money.

Granted, it is not a lot of money ($0.05 per can, far less for bottles, which are valued by the pound), but it could add up considering the veritable ocean of empty cans that are usually left over after a successful weekend of binge drinking. Everyone has the recycling fantasy in their first year or two of college where they think “Dude if we just save all the bottles and cans from like two weeks of partying, take em down to the work training center, we will make enough money to party for another two weeks!” It’s a great idea, but far from the truth. My first year in college, my roommate and I arrived at this same brilliant conclusion after spending many mornings cleaning up dozens of bottles and cans, so we started collecting. After a couple weeks, we had about 8 full size black garbage bags filled with bottles and cans that were taking up my roommate’s entire closet. We stuffed all that crap into the back of his grandma’s crappy Cadillac, and drove it out to the recycling center.

How much would our dangerous alcohol abuse pay off? We couldn’t wait to take our haul in, get paid off, then go get drunk while feeling wonderful about helping the environment. The moment came, and we were delighted to take hold of the fruits of our labor - all $8.60 of it! All that work, all those hangovers and nights spent violently puking into the bushes in the front of the apartment and we didn’t even walk away with $10. Our experience was unfortunate at best, however, it shouldn’t dissuade all you go getters from attempting this feat on your own. We were amateurs, and didn’t grasp the finer complexities of hoarding recyclable material. First and foremost, we bought too much beer in bottles, when we should have been drinking cans. Bottles are worth about $0.08 a pound, and a pound of bottles is way more than you think.

That being said, how much drinking would you have to do to sustain yourself on recycling? First, let’s assume a few things:

-Your goal is to pay your rent with the money you get from recycling

-Your rent is $500.00

-You have 30 days to accumulate this money

Of course the simple answer is the following:

$500.00 / .05 (per can) = 10,000 cans. That is a lot of drinking for a one month period, but let’s breakdown the actual impact of this task.

10,000 cans / 30 days in a month = 333.33 cans a day

Assuming you sleep for 8 hours a night, that leaves 16 hours in a day for drinking

333.33 / 16 = 20.83 (let’s call it 21) beers per hour that you are awake, which equates to roughly 1 beer every 2.86 minutes. This seems like a recipe for liver failure, alcohol poisoning, and some quality bad decision making. Arguably, it is not the best idea, and considering that fact that buying 10,000 beers would cost roughly $8000 (assuming you bought nothing but 30-packs that have an average cost of $24 a unit), this is probably not the most economical way to save the planet and get your rent paid.

That being said, however, it is still a good idea to recycle whenever possible. Lord knows the garbage company couldn’t make it any easier for you to do it, and it is the least effort you would have to make in order to have a slightly positive impact on the environment.