The Cans That Came to Fredericksburg

AT first, it seemed like a worthy and public-spirited idea. The Fredericksburg, Va., realty office of Shannon & Luchs set aside $2,200 and offered to pay 10 for each can found littering the local roadsides. Alas, the firm had underestimated the fervor of the environmental movement. Last week a parking lot adjacent to the realty office was buried under a mountain of cans, all put into plastic bags. Ten ft. high and 190 ft. in diameter, the pile contained 585,156 cans brought in before the offer expired and another 100,000 or so that came in after the deadline.

That left Shannon & Luchs with two problems: 1) honoring the $3,651.56 worth of lOUs that were given out when the original $2,200 was exhausted, and 2) disposing of the cans. The realty company sought the help of local businessmen and collected $700. The townspeople hope to meet the remaining deficit of nearly $3,000 by holding a big benefit dance or carnival later this month. To the disappointment of ardent environmentalists, all of the cans will eventually be buried as landfill; earlier plans to recycle the aluminum containers had to be abandoned. Reason: insufficient manpower to separate them from the rest of Fredericksburg's immense mountain of cans.

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