Cans for Community sets 5,000-pound collection goal for April

The Can Queen promoted Cans for the Community during the annual Lawrence St. Patrick's Day Parade Thursday, March 17, 2011.

The convergence of Earth Day and a high price for aluminum has the volunteers at Cans for the Community setting the bar high for collections this month.

The organization, which gives the proceeds from recycling cans to local charities, hopes to collect 5,000 pounds of cans this month. The amount is far more than what has been collected in the past.

“We are trying to come up with something different to do in honor of Earth Day. So the idea of 5,000 pounds was something we had never ever done before,” said Cans for the Community volunteer Linda Klinker, who refers to herself as the “Crazy Can Lady. “We have a long ways to go.”

Here are the numbers that Cans for the Community are looking at:

$3,000

How much Cans for the Community hopes to make from recycling 5,000 pounds of cans.

3

The number of charities that would receive $1,000 each from the proceeds.

33

The number of aluminum cans that make up a pound.

1 pound

How much Cans for the Community would like every person in Lawrence to recycle.

2,000 pounds

How much the organization has collected so far in April.

3,000 pounds

How much Cans for the Community needs to collect before reaching its 5,000 pound goal.

15 days

How long Cans for the Community has to reach its goal

4,200 pounds

The most that Cans for the Community has ever collected in a single month.

36,974 pounds

How much Cans for the Community collected last year.

10

Number of locations where you can drop off cans for Cans for the Community. They are: the Hy-Vee stores at 3504 Clinton Parkway and 4000 W. Sixth St.; Checkers, 2300 La.; Dillons, 1015 W. 23rd St.; Mass Beverage, 3131 A Nieder Road; Hillcrest Shopping Center, 914 Iowa; Miller Mart, 2301 Wakarusa Drive; Lawrence Memorial Hospital, 325 Maine; Immanuel Lutheran Church, 2104 Bob Billings Parkway; and Trinity Lutheran Church, 1245 N.H.

Cans also can be taken to the 12th and Haskell Recycling Center, 1146 Haskell Ave., and to Saturday’s Earth Day Celebration in South Park.