Off-Campus Drinking by UNK Students Can Have a Positive Impact on Kearney

Typical college students are known for wasting money on things like pizza, video games, clothes, and let's not forget beer. Although I would never encourage underage drinking (If you're that desperate, study abroad) or drinking on UNK's "dry" campus, I am not opposed to all-night beer and Rock Band marathons--as long as your neighbors don't turn you in for noise violations and you recycle your aluminum and paperboard waste the next day.

It makes me sick to see beer cans and Bush Light boxes overflowing from trashcans 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 beer, Coca-Cola, and Arizona Green Tea, we fill an average-sized trash bag with aluminum cans every three or four weeks. That trash bag usually weighs **** ounces and aluminum earns **** per ounce. That's **** extra dollars every month.

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 **** ounce bag of aluminum cans at the recycling bin next to Herbergers once a month...twice a month...once a week...they are donating **** 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 a small donation to the City of Kearney today. Aren't you proud of me?"