Happy 200th Birthday to the Tin Can!

by Bill Connell - Chainalytics
Today the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) celebrates the 200^th anniversary of the metal can. It was 200 years ago that Englishman, Peter Durand received a patent to preserve food in tin plated containers.

People all over the world are familiar with this tin/steel can style of packaging which allows products to be retorted for excellent for shelf stability and product preservation. Also, the can's stack-ability and rigid structure was ideal for safely moving food to uncommon places, like the American Civil War battlegrounds or in a backpack to a kindergarten class food drive.

The steel can also fits right in with today’s sustainability movement because of its high recycling rate and unchanged post recycling material properties. The CMI claims that the metal can is the most recycled type of packaging. Proving that the steel can as we know it will most likely be around for the next 200 years!

Happy Birthday!

Get Paid to Recycle

by Rob Kaszubowski, CPP - Chainalytics

Wouldn’t you love to get paid to throw stuff away? Well, now you can, thanks to Recyclebank. Recyclebank is a company that tracks and scans the weight of packaging you recycle each week, and then turns your recycled goods into points which you can accumulate to redeem later for anything ranging from magazine subscriptions to coupons to other fun freebies and deals.

Our community recently started using Recyclebank in 2010, and I’ve already cashed in my reward points for deals and coupons at local sporting goods stores, clothing stores and restaurants. We were pretty good at recycling before the program was started, but now we definitely have some additional incentive. Plus the whole neighborhood has really taken to the program, which now seems to make recycling fun and exciting! A recent release stated that 87% of households in my town are participating in the recycling program, up from about only 60% before the program started.

Recyclebank also tracks your personal recycling data to show just how “green” you are by identifying the number of trees and gallons of oil saved, just by recycling your water bottles, newspapers and glass bottles every week!

Recyclebank’s focus on the environment and educating consumers on recycling and packaging has definitely put a new, exciting spin on recycling. I can’t wait to see what kind of rewards my points will get me next!



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