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A Spokane couple on a tight budget covers their wedding expenses with recycled aluminum cans
”We’re Pete and Andrea, and we are on a mission – Recycling! As the “original Wedding Can Couple” we have collected 400,000 aluminum cans in order to pay for our July handfasting / wedding with recycling. It took us 197 days – six and a half months. We got help from people in Spokane and around the world.”
When Pete and Andrea made the decision to tie the knot, they also knew they would have to figure out a way to come up with the money to pay for the ceremony. Even though they chose to keep the wedding within a low budget ($4000), that’s still a big chunk of change to come up with for a young couple.
So they began the Wedding Can project, figuring out that by recycling 400,000 aluminum cans they could earn enough money to pay for their wedding. Andrea and Pete collected 280,000 cans through their own efforts, with Alcoa and United Recycling Services stepping in later to donate the balance of the cans.
They reached their goal in six and a half months, and the couple is still collecting cans, but now they are working toward paying for their honeymoon and giving back at the same time. 40% of the proceeds will now go towards their honeymoon fund, the other 60% will go to Doctors without Borders and the Rim Country Land Institute. Pete and Andrea are also working on putting together a complete guide on doing this for other couples (after their July 31st wedding!).
Not only did the couple fund their wedding through recycling, they also put a significant dent in their carbon emissions. According to figures found by Andrea at Popular Mechanics, their efforts to recycle 400,000 cans will reduce carbon emissions by 50 tons.
”Recycling just one ton of aluminum saves 10 tons of carbon. Our number of 400,000 cans assumes approximately 40 cans per pound – meaning our goal is 5 tons. By hitting our recycling goal, this project will help reduce carbon emissions by 50 tons. ... The per capita carbon footprint of each resident of the USA is approximately 19 tons of carbon each year Which means if Pete and I have an “average” carbon footprint, we’ll be offsetting an entire year of our carbon, plus some. I ran our stats through two separate carbon footprint calculators, and came up with a combined footprint of about 8 tons for the both of us each year. ... By recycling 5 tons of aluminum to pay for our wedding, we will be offsetting our own carbon emissions for a few years, but have enough left over to “pay for” the emissions that our wedding will create (which we are also trying to reduce with steps like having the wedding and reception in one place.)”
”We’re Pete and Andrea, and we are on a mission – Recycling! As the “original Wedding Can Couple” we have collected 400,000 aluminum cans in order to pay for our July handfasting / wedding with recycling. It took us 197 days – six and a half months. We got help from people in Spokane and around the world.”
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