When you visit Collect-A-Can in Aeroton the most striking sight is the piles of crushed cans, stacked high all around the courtyard taking up all the available space. Men and machines work industriously, fork lift trucks whizz around, articulated lorries reverse into position, all of them getting the piles ready for transportation around the world. It's an impressive sight.

Making collections from across Joburg and surrounding areas Collect-A-Can processes over 500 tonnes of used cans every month.

There are two main ways in which the cans reach the depot; 1.Collect-A-Can sends trucks to schools, charities (such as the SPCA) shopping malls, casinos, pubs and restaurants. 2.Cans are bought into the depot by collectors (see picture right).

All the collected cans are weighed and payment is then given to whoever provided them. This is helps schools and charities to raise money as well as providing informal employment for those out of work.

At the depot the cans are sorted into steel and aluminium, and then crushed into bales convenient for transportation to the recycling plants.

The bales are stacked up around the courtyard until they are ready to be transported by truck, rail or boat to recycling plants around the world. In South Africa Eskor and Nampak's recyling plants receive a portion of the cans but a large percentage of the bales are shipped to India and Pakistan.

Did you know?
1. 66% of all cans sold in Southern Africa are collected by Collect-A-Can for recycling.

2. Collect-A-Can is a non-profit organisation jointly owned by Nampak and Eskor and is sponsored by Coca-Cola and SAB Miller.

3. Recycling one aluminium can saves enough energy to run your television for 3 hours or light one 100 watt bulb for 20 hours.

4. Aluminum takes 500 years to break down.

visit www.collectacan.co.za for more information.