MILANG ENVIRONMENT CENTRE corner of Weeroona Drive & Jupiter Street Milang
PO Box 338 Milang SA 5256 – Ph: 85370201 – E: milangenvironmentalcentre@gmail.com
OPEN: 10 AM – 3 PM WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY
ALUMINIUM CANS CONUNDRUM
Your local recycling depot the Milang Environment Centre has over many years helped successful recycling of a huge number of aluminium cans. The aluminium can recycle process involves MEC accepting cans, paying the deposit refund for cans, crushing, tallying, storing and transporting aluminium cans separated into two different categories: soft drink cans and beer cans. The current SA drink container deposit refund scheme does not make this task easy for the MEC volunteers aka ‘dinosaurs’. Under the scheme an assortment of different alcohol mixed drink cans must be treated as “beer cans”. It can be quite confusing. Thankfully the on-the-ball, sharp, capable, dedicated and fully trained if somewhat confused MEC volunteers are up to the challenge.
BEER OR SOFT DRINK CAN?
The next time that you bring a collection of various aluminium cans into MEC and watch as the volunteers efficiently count them, spare a sympathetic thought for the fact that during the count the volunteers must quickly distinguish between mixed alcohol drink cans that are classified as “beer cans” and other mixed alcohol drink cans that are classified as “soft drink cans”. And God help the volunteer who makes a mistake. No slice of fresh-baked cake for that careless volunteer! MEC volunteers while drinking coffee and eating cake often ask: “How is it that ‘Hard Solo’ (lemon squash with alcohol) is classified as a “beer can” but whisky, vodka, gin based mixed drinks are classed as “soft drink cans?” Good question!
When we queried MEC Administration Director Geoff Dungey he told MCN that the volunteer grumbles are over nothing. “There is a big, thick, red, hard-covered folder that lists thousands of different drink containers and classifies each type. Any volunteer who is confused about a classification for a specific aluminium drink can may simply look it up in the catalogue. Problem solved!”
Geoff informed MCN he does not get involved in counting and sorting aluminium cans as he is more a “Big numbers tallying and cash register man”.
WHY?
The MEC volunteer team ask why ciders with alcohol are classed as “beer cans” but vodka mixed drinks are classed as “soft drink cans”. The confusing classifications slow down the efficient counting and processing of these aluminium cans because they must be “sorted”. Why should it make any difference? It would be quicker and easier to treat ALL aluminium cans as simply that; ‘aluminium cans’, irrespective of what type of drink they contained.
Once the sorting and crushing component of the recycling process for aluminium cans is completed the confusion continues for the frustrated MEC volunteers at the storage and transportation stages. Those classified as “beer cans” must be stored in bales of 800 cans. Those classified as “soft drink cans” must be stored in bales of 1500 cans. “Go figure!?” said one frustrated MEC volunteer who wished to remain anonymous but who MCN identified as Peter Miller. “Furthermore”, he added: “We may be ‘dinosaurs’ but most of us can manually handle and load a 500 can storage bale. But try hefting a 1500 can storage bale onto a truck!”
MEC transports the bales of crushed aluminium “beer” and “soft drink” cans to an EPA approved ‘super-collector’ depot north of Adelaide. Regional depots such as MEC and ‘super-collector’ depots are key components in making the SA drink container refund and recycling scheme a success.
In 2020, SA achieved an 82% recovery rate for aluminium drink cans and recycled 3818 tonnes of aluminium cans. SA has achieved the LOWEST litter rate for drink containers in Australia. In 2018 drink containers made up 2.8% of litter in SA while the next best state was Queensland with 6.2%.