Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 28, 1990 TAG: 9007280250
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ED SHAMY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The plan was to serve soft drinks to the folks who brought in their cans, and the Reynolds workers figured that 10 cases of soda pop would be plenty.
But they had a devil of a time finding soft drinks in aluminum. The search covered most of Western Virginia before 240 aluminum cans could be mustered.
Three or four months ago, Coca-Cola began putting its cola into steel cans at the Roanoke bottling plant. Aluminum cans were done away with.
"Steel cans are considerably less expensive for us to buy," said Lauren Steele, the vice president for corporate affairs at Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated in Charlotte, N.C. The firm owns the Roanoke plant and makes virtually all of the Coke served in Western Virginia.
For the average consumer, Coke's switch to steel means little - in the store. The soda doesn't cost less, it doesn't taste any different and the cans look the same.
But the aluminum-to-steel move has had a profound impact when the cans are emptied and become recyclable waste.
Steel cans are worth a fraction of aluminum.
About 25 empty aluminum cans weigh a pound, and they'll fetch 28 to 32 cents per pound at Reynolds Aluminum, Cycle Systems and others that buy them.
It takes only 12 steel cans to make a pound - but that pound is worth only a nickel at best. Twenty-five cans will bring only a dime to the seller.
"These guys with the shopping carts that you see on the side of the road are taking a beating," says Ken Beachum, a buyer at Cycle Systems.
They aren't alone. Civic, church and community groups who have adopted recycling as part of their fund-raising efforts are earning a lot less money.
And it has dealt a blow to the mandatory recycling effort in Vinton. Aluminum earns far more money for the town than newspaper, glass or plastic.
"Aluminum is really the only revenue producer we have," says Chris Chittum, a Vinton town planner. "We rely on it."
Coke's shift to steel has meant a lot more work sorting the cans and a lot less money.
"It's just another thing we have to do," says Chittum. "And the value has dropped like a stone."
Coca-Cola changed its container just as fledgling recycling programs - such as Vinton's - were beginning, and just before Roanoke, and the counties of Roanoke, Bedford and Montgomery start their own programs.
But recyclers say there is no need to add another bin to the trucks, or even for residents to separate aluminum cans from steel.
Beachum said Cycle Systems uses powerful magnets to draw out the steel cans.
"We want to make sure these cans can be and are being recycled," said Steele, at Coca-Cola in Charlotte. "We hope that our using steel cans in parts of Virginia could spur recycling of other steel cans.
"Steel cans are recyclable, too. They're just not worth as much," he said.
by CNB