A Good Excuse for a Bad Habit

Typical college students are known for wasting money on things like pizza, video games, various caffeinated beverages, and let's not forget beer. Although I would never encourage underage drinking – anyone who is that desperate should study abroad and learn what drinking is to another culture – or drinking on UNK's "dry" campus, I am not opposed to all-night, off campus, legal beer and Rock Band marathons--as long as your neighbors don't turn you in for noise violations and you recycle all the aluminum you accumulate throughout the night.

It makes me sick to see cans that used to hold Bush Light or Redbull overflowing from trash bins in my neighborhood every Monday morning. Some foolish, unenlightened college students are throwing away hard-earned money.

Those beer cans are made of aluminum.

Andersen Wrecking Company pays people for aluminum.

Did no one ever teach these academic beer enthusiasts how to put two and two together?

My boyfriend and I don't host a lot of parties, but between the two of us, we consume enough beer, Coca-Cola, and Arizona Green Tea to fill an average-sized trash bag with aluminum cans every three or four weeks. That trash bag usually weighs one to two pounds, depending on how many cans we crush, and aluminum currently earns sixty cents per pound. That's almost a dollar a month.

It’s not an overwhelming amount, I’ll admit, but everybody likes making easy money.

However, we also called 308-233-3206 to get a free recycling container from the City of Kearney Sanitation Department.

The recycling containers and curbside pick-up are free to anyone who pays for trash pick-up, but there are also several public-access blue recycling dumpsters located in several places around the city including one next to Herbergers at the Hill Top Mall.

Those who don't pay for trash pick-up and don't want to look for Andersen Wrecking Company cannot claim they don't know where the mall is. Those who don't admit to shopping at the mall still have to venture to that end of town to buy video games...

If beer-drinking gamers drop off one two pound bag of aluminum cans at the recycling bin next to Herbergers once a month, they will donate approximately fourteen dollars to the City of Kearney in a year.

If they recycle two pounds twice a month, they will donate close to thirty dollars a year.

If they recycle two pounds of aluminum once a week, which might be feasible depending on how many roommates are involved, they will donate nearly sixty dollars to the City of Kearney every year. That's practically community service.

I am writing this for all the college students who have ever been called underachievers. Come on! Gather up your cans, choose your preferred method of recycling and call your parents. Tell them, "Mom, Dad, I did something good today."

For those of you who chose to seek out the wrecking company, say: "I cleaned my house, got rid of some things I didn't need anymore, and made a little money in the process."

For those of you who dialed a phone number or drove to the mall, say: "I recycled, and I made an unofficial donation to the City of Kearney today.”

All of you should follow up your parents’ stunned silence with: “Aren't you proud of me?"