Recycling aluminum cans has quite a long history.   My family was involved in 1972 as a way to clean up a little manufactured trash and make a little bit of money.  In those days you had to look at the cans pretty hard to make sure they weren't made of steel.  We even had fund raisers at school and I can remember thousands of cans piled up shoulder high.  We were attempting to save and reclaim the environment as best we knew how.

     These days, I'm sure folks recycle for the same reasons.   It is good for the environment, you can make some money out of it, and it is generally the right thing to do.   It's a good habit to teach young ones too as they tend to carry it the rest of their lives.

     The first step is to buy yourself a good can crusher.  There seems to be about two basic styles of this gadget.  First, the single can crusher.  They tend to be made either steel or a tough plastic.  I have seen a model made of wood too.  The second type are the multi crush units that have a loading chute to hold several cans at a time.  All of these are best used when mounted to a stout vertical pole or to the wall.

     The single crusher is the oldest of the two and is an excellent choice for some people.  Most are built pretty strong and can crush various sizes of cans.  The US standard cans are either 12 oz. or 16 oz.  There are other sizes but most can crushers won't work for them. 

     These are your considerations.  Are you going to crush a few or a lot of cans?  Are you going to be doing it inside or outside, and are you or the people who are using this tool physically able to use it?  Some can crushers have long handles to ease the pull on the handle which is important if you are physically unable to apply much force.  Older folks, disabled, and children need longer handles.  The longer the handle the easier the pull.  Some have padded handles.  Some eject the can after it has been crushed.  Steel types can eventually rust outside but may last longer in very cold climates.  Plastic types won't rust but may break in severe cold.  Youngsters may break any can crusher simply because they are inexperienced and have a tendency to play.  Note that after saying all this some crushers are engineered so well making them so easy to use that you don't need a long handle.

     If you are going to be crushing a lot of cans then don't buy a cheap can crusher.  It stands to reason doesn't it?  Cheap light weight plastic or thin sheet metal simply will not hold up as well as heavy steel or well designed high tech plastic models.  If a can crusher is being sold 2 for $5.00 you can be pretty sure it is too cheap to be very good.

     The second type of can crusher is the multi crush type.  It has a chute which you load with cans and then crush them one at a time in a ratchet motion as fast as you want..  These types are very fast and lend themselves to crushing a lot of cans.  My  personal crusher is a plastic type multi crusher that has worked for many years and crushed maybe a 1000 cans.  I never really counted.  There are steel and plastic models.  I would think the steel would be better in the north and the plastic better in the south though I have distributed both ways with success.

     There are a few  other types of crushers.  One mounts on the top of a trash can and works well for crowds that are generating a lot of cans.  Everybody crushes their own cans so there is no mess.  It also works well as a fund raiser in that groups can provide the unit to events and then take large amounts of cans to be turned into cash for their cause.  Then there is the wall mounted hi tech plastic model that crushes one can at a time with very little effort.  It is engineered so well that small children have the strength to use it.  It is also very tough.  Another interesting feature is that it has a bin that detaches that holds 48 crushed cans.  Very clean and well designed.

      The last type of can crusher is the electric style.  These are normally very expensive fun type toys.  The cost of the crusher generally will take forever to recoup in sold cans.  However it is fun to use.  Everybody knows that toys cost money.

     I hope this helps in determining a can crushing solution for you.  For photos and examples of these types of crushers please visit me on Ebay or the web.    If you liked this guide please vote for it.

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