Some Blog Site

A while back I had an interesting traffic situation. I was attempting to leave a shopping area. There was one car in front of me, sitting at the stop sign.  Just when traffic was about to clear, allowing us to enter the road, the driver put his car in park and got out. He then crossed to the far side of the driveway, went partway down the drainage ditch, and picked up an empty can.

It took him about 15 seconds to get the can and return. And 15 seconds of idling would waste about 1/1200 of a gallon (at a rate of 1/10 of a gallon per 30 minutes).

At $3.00 a gallon, 15 seconds of idling burns about a quarter of a penny.  The shopping center was in the state of Michigan, which gives you 10 cents for eligible can returns. So the guy did not waste that much money by idling his car – in fact he came out 9.75 cents ahead.

And 9.75 cents per 15 seconds of work translates to 39 cents a minute or 23.4 dollars an hour, not a bad rate. But there is no way he would be able to collect cans at a sustained rate of 1 can every 15 seconds, at least not by driving along the road and stopping for recyclables.

These calculations do not take into account the extra idling required because he then missed the traffic window provided by the nearby stoplight. So he and I – and the person behind me – had to wait even longer for traffic to clear. And I did not get any money out of it, so it was not worth my time.

It is one thing to stop and pick up cans. It is another to block traffic to do so. If you’re going to stop your car, please make sure you are not in anyone’s way.  And if you are stuck behind someone, do give them the benefit of the doubt

“If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”
– Romans 12:18