When I lived in Germany, we very rarely drank out of aluminum cans. In Germany, all aluminum cans have a twenty-five cent deposit on them. The deposit can be refunded at any location where cans are sold. However, it really pushed us to drink less soda. When we, on occasion, drank beer, we would drink it out of glass bottles. The bottles also have a deposit but its only seven cents. (For some reason the seven cents was easier to swallow, even though we always returned the bottles and cans. Ha Ha!)
So what’s going on with aluminum cans? Why does Germany want to discourage people from drinking out of them or at the very least, make it very painful to not recycle them? It takes more energy to mine and produce aluminum than any other metal. According to The World Counts, we are using over 200 billion aluminum cans a year. (And now take this next statistic with a grain of salt considering the source) The Aluminum Association states that 67% of aluminum cans are recycled in the United States.
This brings me to our 30 Tage Ohne Dosen challenge. My husband and I have decided that we are going to do our very best to go the next thirty days without buying or consuming any beverages out of aluminum cans. Before you worry that we won’t be able to drink any beer or sparkling water, (GASP) we have plan.
One of my passions is to support local businesses. In Lincoln Square, we are surrounded by amazing breweries that will fill up your growlers with their delicious beer. When the time comes to buy some beer, we’ll just hit up our favorite brewery and bring our growler. :)
Sparkling water is a whole different story. I drink many, many cans a day and love it so very much. Our plan to tackle this addiction is to buy a soda stream. This comes with a high initial cost but my husband has found a pretty clever way to bring down the long-term costs. It requires a little bit of space but we are purchasing a large C02 tank that will live in our basement. We’ll be able to refill the tank for the soda stream twenty times for a couple of dollars each time.
If this sounds way too extreme for you (and check back in with me in a few weeks after giving up my precious La Croix) one thing you can do to make a difference is ALWAYS RECYCLE YOUR CANS!!!! Also, check our instagram (@puromundum) in the next few weeks for pictures of our new C02 tank. It’ll be a beauty.
Author: Courtney Bellmann