Wondering what to do with those aluminum cans after you get finished with that refreshing drink? Well, now you can put them to good use instead of throwing them out in the trash. You can now help the local school systems by gathering up those cans and taking them to one of the several recycling bins located at each school or just drop them by the front of the parking lot at Gate 1 at Logan Aluminum.

Tom Walpole, President of Novelis North America, one of the owners of Logan Aluminum, has announced that Novelis will be holding its Can Recycling Challenge in 2012. Collection of aluminum drinking cans has been going on since October of last year, however, September is the month Logan Aluminum is targeting for collection, from not only students, but the community as a whole.

There are caged aluminum can containers at each one of the school’s parking lots in Logan County/Russellville, with the exception of Lewisburg. But this doesn’t mean Logan Aluminum doesn’t want Lewisburg’s cans, they do. Logan Aluminum is located close to the city of Lewisburg, so that is why they have a recyclable can bin at the first gate of the company for people to use.

“Recycling helps our industry, the local economy and our environment,” said Jason Goodwin, Team Leader at Logan Aluminum. “This challenge will also help the local kids,” added Goodwin, who serves on a committee at Logan helping kick off the challenge.

Each U.S. location competes for the most aluminum beverage cans collected per employee as well. The winner will receive $5,000. Each location also competes for the best internal and external promotion, a $1,000 prize for each. The awards will be donated to the charity chosen by the winning site. Additionally, each location’s results will be submitted to the Great American Can Roundup Industry Challenge, a can collection campaign organized by the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI).

If a Novelis location collects the most cans per employee in the contest, it will win an additional $2,000 from CMI to donate to the charity of its choice.

Logan Aluminum has decided to divide evenly the proceeds of the collected cans as well as any awards from the Challenge among the schools in Logan County and Russellville City School systems. TriArrows Aluminum has also agreed to match Logan’s contribution based on cans collected.

So, this is where the community comes in. “We need your cans,” said Goodwin.

“The goal is to collect 1,600 pounds,” said Annie E. Williams, Environmental Engineer at Logan Aluminum and chair of the Cans for Schools committee. “This will benefit the community and all the money will be evenly donated to each school,” said Williams, so each student in all areas of the county will benefit as well.

Recycling aluminum cans saves precious natural resources, energy, time and money – all for a good cause – helping out the earth, as well as the economy and local communities.

Aluminum was discovered in the 1820’s and was found to be the most abundant metal on the earth. Since then, aluminum has been used to manufacture many items such as aluminum cans, gutters, aluminum foil, and many other items. In 1972, approximately 26,500 tons of aluminum cans were recycled and today that number is estimated to be as high as 800,000 tons. Over 100,000 Aluminum cans are recycled every minute in the U.S. alone. Every can that is recycled means more resources that are available at a lesser cost. Even though the economic benefits are straightforward, there are still many hundreds of thousands of tons of aluminum cans every year that are being disposed of alongside roadways, in dumpsters, and in office trash cans.

The average employee consumes 2.5 aluminum cans worth of beverages per day. Because of this, places of employment have implemented recycling programs by placing bins in break rooms, hallways, and offices. This helps prevents aluminum cans from landing in landfills and diverts them to the recycling centers like they should be (so that they can be recycled and back on store shelves within sixty days). It only takes about 6 weeks to manufacture, fill, sell, recycle and then re-manufacture a beverage can.