Walking my dog, the other day, I look around to see, crushed, tin-cans laying everywhere. It took me back to being a wee kiddy, when you would see beer cans laying around, but most of all, the ring-pulls that had come off of them. It created a question in my tiny mind: What is the accumulative value of all the metal that is thrown onto the ground?
If we are looking at a square-mile, it would likely be a moderate figure, so at a push, a few pounds. What if this was scaled up to the whole of the UK, or the world? There must be an ‘oozle’ of tons that are scattered about. The image shows four cans in less than a metre square, so averaging it out, it would equate to an enormous figure. As the world has approximately 510 million kilometres of surface, given the space needed for the oceans, we have at least 150 million km of land to work with. There are variables that would matter that include the location of purchasable tin-cans and areas where nobody lives. Still, imagine the value!
As of writing this, aluminium is at 20-30p per kilo, we are looking at a value in excess of several billion. It’s a number that pushes the imagination. I wonder if somebody would like to don the litter-grabber and start the trawl. The fact that it litters our spaces is disgusting. We have all the amenities to keep our spaces tidy, but as ever, there are always people to spoil that. All that lolly is being thrown onto the floor, but would it pay to pick it up?
