Perhaps the metal from these cans would be recycled into someone else's Volkswagen.

It wasn't enough. We counted all the crushed cans into the cart, 526, still inches shy of the top.

It was hot, but we were determined.

We needed a whirlwind of tightly choreographed stomping, but we were too proud to consult Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas.

With a quantity-obsessed determination, and the inspiring work-ethic of a crew of homeless guys, we were finally able to fill the cart!

It took 853 crushed cans to fill the cart. 

This was a hell of a lot of soda cans. If we had emptied them into a tub, it would have totaled 80 gallons of soda!

It took exactly two hours to crush them all, but we were on cloud nine. We were going to be rich!

I try to do all my recycling at ReCyCo, but our shopping cart was in no shape to make the journey.

We packed up the cans and the cart, and made our triumphant way to the recycling depot in the supermarket parking lot.

The cans paid off, BIG TIME!

Our shopping cart-full of cans held 23.2 pounds of cans (10.5 Kg). In minutes, we had traded it for a brown voucher, redeemable for cash at the nearby Supermarket.

Our total? $28.77! Hooray! It was time to relax in the air conditioning and enjoy the high life.

After all that effort, I wasn't really in the mood for soda.

Califonia raised the Redemption Value of aluminum cans to 5 cents. The same cart of cans would now be worth $42.65.