According to statistics, mankind annually produces about 300 million tons of plastic bottles and 200 billion aluminum cans. Moreover, a significant part of such containers ends up in landfills, in the ground or on the ocean floor, thereby polluting the environment.
A couple from Australia found a way to simultaneously make our planet cleaner and save on their own wedding. For almost a year now, young people have been giving up used empty bottles and cans, receiving a small reward for this.
Good idea
Leoni Starr and Matthew Porter started collecting and handing out used plastic, aluminum and glass containers quite recently - a little less than a year ago. In the fall of 2018, the Queensland government, where Leoni came from, introduced a special package discount program. From that moment on, every resident of the state had the right to hand over a can or a bottle and receive 10 cents for them.
Just then, Leoni and Matthew decided to get married and get married. The young people sat down and calculated how much the celebration of the wedding could cost them. In the end, it turned out that for the organization of the wedding they needed a huge amount of 81 thousand dollars.
Honeymoon
Young people were primarily going to book a large banquet hall and call a lot of guests. The lovers also decided to go on a honeymoon to the Republic of Vanuatu. At the same time, Leoni and Matthew planned to take 35 of their closest friends and relatives with them on this trip, paying them, among other things, hotel accommodation and meals.
How many bottles will it take
Learning about the initiative of the government, Leoni and Matthew decided that they can make our world cleaner and better and at the same time raise money for the luxurious wedding of their dreams. It was not difficult for young people to calculate that in order to accumulate an amount of 81 thousand dollars, they would have to collect about 810 thousand cans and bottles. Of course, lovers were aware that this is a lot, and they will have to collect containers for a long time. However, the upcoming difficulties Leoni and Matthew did not scare.
Facebook Group
Immediately after the start of the container collection enterprise, Leoni and Matthew organized a group on Facebook called Recycled Wedding. Subsequently, they periodically shared their successes with subscribers on social networks with subscribers.
By the spring of 2019, the couple had already collected about 60 thousand bottles worth about $ 6,000. Today, in their group, Leoni and Matthew not only share their success in collecting bottles, but also carry out environmental awareness campaigns among their subscribers.
Young people tell Internet users what rules to follow in certain situations so as not to harm nature. Also, lovers often publish in a group articles about what technologies are used in the world for processing plastic and aluminum containers.
When a couple plans to get married
Things with the collection of used bottles and cans from lovers at the moment are going very well. A couple began to help in this matter, and many of their subscribers. Also, a group of Leoni and Matthew joined several entrepreneurs engaged in the actual processing of bottles and cans.
If the matter with collecting containers in the future for lovers will go as well as now, the required amount, according to their calculations, they will be able to collect in about a year. In any case, Leoni and Matthew are planning to play the wedding of their dreams in 2020.
Bottles and cans: how serious is everything
As you know, mass production of plastic began on our planet about 60 years ago. Over the next decades, the output of this material has increased many times. Water bottles, as already mentioned, today the world produces about 300 million tons per year. Actually, at the moment, people produce at least 8 billion tons of plastic products.
However, only 9% of such products are subsequently sent for processing. A certain amount of plastic is burned, the rest enters the environment. According to environmentalists, about 6 billion tons of such products are left annually in landfills, in land and on the ocean floor. Their weight, according to experts, is equal to the weight of approximately 700 Eiffel towers or 70 million blue whales.
According to scientists, if this goes on, by the middle of the century, the mass of plastic floating in the oceans alone will be greater than the mass of all its inhabitants.
How plastic bottles are recycled
The methods of processing such containers in the world can be used very different. In Russia, at the plant in Solnechnogorsk, for example, since 2007, a unique bottle-to-bottle technology (bottle to bottle) has been used for this purpose.
The company's specialists organized the collection of containers directly on the streets of the city, installing special plastic containers. From time to time, special equipment drives up to these collections and takes the bottles to the enterprise. Here, small granules are made from plastic containers. Further, this material is sent to enterprises specializing in the production of plastic bottles.
Recycling aluminum cans
Such containers pollute the environment almost as seriously as plastic bottles. A discarded aluminum can takes about 500 years to decompose. In our country, the volume of turnover of such containers is approximately 2-3 billion pieces per year. But only a small fraction of this mass is being processed.
It is known that recycling aluminum cans takes about 3 months. That is, in the case of processing, such a container is returned filled to store shelves within 60 days after it is purchased.
In processing plants, cans can be pressed into slabs, ground into powder for subsequent fusion, etc. In any case, as experts say, losses during aluminum recycling are usually very small. Each new bank is almost entirely made in enterprises from one old one.
Instead of a conclusion
Recycling cans and bottles in this way for the environment is very important. The story of Leoni and Matthew is a great example of the fact that nothing is impossible for caring people in this world. The initiative of this couple has become an inspiration for many of their Facebook followers.
None of the Internet users has decided to repeat the experience of young people. However, many subscribers Leoni and Matthew, learning about their deed, instead of continuing to throw out bottles and cans, began to donate them, thereby helping to preserve the environment.
Be that as it may, according to users of the network and Facebook, Leoni and Matthew himself will have something to tell their grandchildren in old age. After all, young people decided to arrange for themselves a really unusual and memorable event - a dream wedding.