Getting the last little bit of liquid out of cans before they hit the recycle bin

No, it's not a troll. We always have a little puddle of ooze at the bottom of the recycle bin that attracts all sorts of insects. Anyone have a good way of emptying pop-tops cans completely other than shaking them to death upside-down for 60 seconds? My arthritic wrists are beginning to take exception to all that shaking. I used to crush them and the sides would rupture allowing better drainage - but still puddles. Besides, our recycler specifies "no crushing" for some odd reason. The offset hole and curvature of the can make it really hard to get the last few drops out.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green
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I would rinse the cans with tap water. Three half cans of water rinse would take out 99+% of insect attracing residue.

Reply to
Frank

The reason is that they're getting the 5 cent deposit per can.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

If their State has a deposit law. Not all do. My state does, but New Jersey next door doesn't. When I have a BBQ or party and people bring their own cans or bottles of beverages, I have to sort them before bringing the NY ones in for deposit.

Reply to
willshak

...

The "no crushing" reason is for the other poster's suggestion--so they can wash them out before beginning processing to minimize the crap in the mix.

--

Reply to
dpb

Sort them for what? The cans and bottles sold here in Florida are still marked with the deposit information for the half dozen states that require it.

Reply to
gfretwell

I turn 'em upside down in the sink, with the edge of the opening turned toward the drain. Once they're as drained as they get, I put 'em on a rack next to the sink until they're dry, or until I'm tired of looking at them. Then they go in the bin (in my case, a bin of "cans and bottles to go back to the store so that I can redeem the deposit I paid when I bought them).

It really doesn't take much time to get them dry enough not to slop up the bottom of the bin.

Cindy Hamilton

Reply to
Cindy Hamilton

That is another reason. Scrap dealers that buy the cans want them uncrushed because unscrupulous people put a little sand in each can before it's crushed to boost the weight.

There's a beer and soda place I've passed a couple times recently where I saw several "obviously not employees but there with the allowance of management" taking great pains divying up cans. Only thing I could surmise is that they were taking the cans somewhere else for the deposit money. Double dipping deposits.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

te:

???? I haven't seen a soda/beer can made like that since...well forever it seems.

Harry K

Reply to
Harry K

te:

I have never seen a mixed metal can. What brand/item do you know that has that type of can construction?

R
Reply to
RicodJour

I give 'em a quick rinse with tap water and toss them in the bin.

Every couple of months I wash out the recycling bins. I get some junk in the bottom of the bins, but no bugs.

To clean jars and containers, I add an inch or so of hot tap water, close them and shake them, repeat as required. This cleans out peanut butter, mayo, jelly, etc.

A word of caution: the heat and shaking can build up pressure. I was cleaning a sour cream container the other day and used too much water. The lid popped off and sprayed watered down sour cream all over the back of the sink, the faucet, up under the window sill, in the tracks of the sliding window, etc. It was gross!

Reply to
DerbyDad03

If you folks are worried about bugs, dust a little boric acid in the bottom, of the bins. If you have bugs, it will bait them and kill them.

Reply to
gfretwell

On 10/26/2010 2:33 AM Robert Green spake thus:

Here's a quick "handyman's solution" I just thunk up: take a chunk of wood, say a short piece of tubafour, drive a 16d nail through it, creating a (potentially dangerous) spindle. Grab a can and punch it down on the spindle to puncture it, creating a small drain hole. Drain can.

If it doesn't work on the bottom because the bottom is slightly dished, try puncturing the side of the can. Carefully, now: don't want to put a hole in the palm of your hand. [1]

[1] Reminds me of a really stupid accident I had involving just such a spindle. Back in another life I was working as a guitar repairperson. On my workbench I had a spindle which I used to hold pieces of paper, work orders and such.

Well, of course one day I was working on this guy's nice expensive classical guitar, had it on its side on the bench, when it fell over--right onto the goddamn spindle. Put a nice nail-shaped hole in the top, not all the way through, but plainly visible. Ouch. Not the best day of my life ...

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

On 10/26/2010 8:41 AM RicodJour spake thus:

Must be a You Kay thing.

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

re: "Carefully, now: don't want to put a hole in the palm of your hand. "

Reminds me of trip I once took with my son's sports team. The hotel provided a continental breakfast and one of the other teenagers grabbed a bagel and a plastic knife.

Wanting to cut the bagel so he could toast it, he placed the tip of the knife on the edge of the bagel, and knowing how tough the crust of a bagel could be, he pushed really, really hard.

That's when he found out that the hotel provided pre-split bagels!

He buried the tip of the plastic knife in the palm of his hand, let out a scream, and then turned his hand over, with the knife hanging out of it and blood running down the knife.

We (including his father) were laughing so hard we could hardly help him.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote the following:

Is one of them NJ?

Reply to
willshak

Last time I tried to get deposit money for cans I bought in OH, the machine would not accept them.

I no longer bother myself with redeeming cans and bottles. Instead, I donate them to the Girl Scouts, because a neighbor has a collection bin in their front yard. The troop leader thinks I'm generous, but the scouts don't like me because I bring 'em a truckload about once a year...

Reply to
mkirsch1

I save my cans for my SIL, who has a grand daughter who is autistic, and so I dare not throw an aluminum can out around this house. It's a royal pain, especially when all the other people just put them in the bag, sometimes with a little in there, sometimes half full.

So, I have issued some edicts, just sit them on the work bench out in the garage, and I will take care of them. I have found out the best thing is to just rinse with water when you empty it. Now, I realize it isn't always YOU that empties it, and therefore YOU might run into cigarette butts, terbaccy spit, or no telling what when YOU rinse it out. But I bite the bullet for little Ashlyn. I rinse them out, turn them upside down on a expanded metal rack to dry out, then smash them, but that's something your recycler doesn't want you to do.

Long story short, rinse the can, set out to dry, and hope your cause is worth it. If it wasn't for little Ashlyn, they'd all go in the dumper, as far as I'm concerned. Anyone who would chew tobacco would eat dog ****.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

Another reason some recylclers don't want crushed cans is because it prevents them from crushing the cans themselves into bales and cubes for easier handling.

Reply to
Larry W

I haven't seen those since the mid 1970s. It wasn't tell they changed to the necked (like a rifle round) cans, that aluminum could be made thin enough to be cheap, but still stiff enough to stick the lid on. (Leastways, that is how the TV show a few years ago explained it.)

Reply to
aemeijers

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