TODAY WAS ALUMINUM CAN RECYCLING DAY!

 

This morning, I stuffed six big 45 gallon bags of squished aluminum cans in my car, and away I went to the recycling plant in Barberton.

I helped them dump all my cans into this great big bin, and they needed another one for all my cans.

I gave them 121 pounds of cans!  Wow!  That's a lot of squishing!  There's about 32 cans per pound, so that's 3,872 cans I picked up!

I HATE picking up cans.  They stink to high heaven, they slow me down, and they're full of ants.  But I do it, because my son, Jason, told me to recycle.

I made $66.55, and that will buy two boxes of construction bags!  Yay!  

All the extra work is worth it when I get cash!

On the way out of the recycling plant, I saw what all my cans will look like tomorrow!  How fun is that?

I wonder how many cubes my cans will make.

The entrance ramp to 224 is closed for repairs, so some traffic is diverted down Waterloo Road.  That's how I went to Barberton today.  The exit ramp is not closed, and it was such a mess.

So that's where I wanted to go first.  It was so much worse than I thought driving by.  There were layers and layers of old trash.

I was right here when a man in a really nice red pickup truck yelled out his window, "You are awesome!  I saw you on TV!  You are so awesome!"   

I just smiled.  Funny that people still remember that.

I picked up all the trash along the sidewalk under the overpass, and filled three bags.  

There's still a lot to pick up.  I didn't get to the other side of the road, and there's just as much over there.

I picked up 2,263 pieces today, and I wish I could have finished, but there's at least another whole day of work here.

I was perplexed looking at this.  There are at least 100 big styrofoam Polar Pop cups scattered on this steep incline, and more of them lined up like ducks under the bridge.  Somebody worked hard to make such a mess!

I don't know how to clean this.  I think it's too dangerous to climb up there by myself.  If I fell, I'm sure I would get hurt, and I'd never reach my one-million-piece goal!

I was standing right here looking up, and a man and his wife drove up to me and stopped.  He rolled his window down and said, "Who pays you?"  I said, "Nobody. I'm a volunteer."  

He squirmed around in his seat to get his wallet out of his back pocket and gave me $20!  He said, "Go out to dinner on me.  Thank you for what you're doing."

Meanwhile, there was a big long line of cars behind him.  I can't remember when I've been so flattered and embarrassed at the same time! 

What would make a person do something like that?  I might think of it after the fact, but I don't think I'd do it in the moment like he did.  I told him, "Thank you very much!"

People do notice and appreciate what I'm trying so hard to do.