Recirculate to Recycle

Loose change: Quarters, dimes, nickels, and beloved pennies.  Most Americans keep coins from previous transactions in their wallet, purse, piggy bank, a cup labeled “Vacation Funds,” or in the cracks of the sofa the coins accidently fell into.  Today, the value of a penny is worth less than the amount of copper it goes into making it and same goes for the nickel.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could just recycle pennies and nickels to collect a higher profit?  Unfortunately, the U.S. Mint has the sole permission to melt currency so we would not be able to gain a penny’s true worth by literally recycling it.  However, I am going to encourage you to “recycle” your coins by recirculating them back into the system.  In other words, instead of hoarding your coins around your room, house, car, purse, etc… SPEND THEM! 

This way the U.S. Mint can melt the coins and recycle the metals so they won’t have to extract the costly metals.  If the supply would reduce, the amount of pollution released from the extraction of precious metals, production of the coins, and the transportation of the heavy metals would reduce too.  Also, maybe eventually the U.S. Mint will not have to create as many coins each year since the supply will reduce because people will actually be spending them.

There is an estimated $10 billion in coins throughout the United States sitting in people’s homes.  Not only will this help the environment, it will help your wallet by 1) making it not as heavy because instead of ignoring the coins, you will spend them during cash transactions and 2) you’re spending money that might be ignored for YEARS, so you’re actually richer than you probably thought you were.   If you don’t spend your coins as you go along, gather them in ONE SPOT instead of around the house and take them to a Constar to get cash, gift cards, or donate them to a charity such as the World Wildlife Fund.  Click on the link to find the nearest Constar near you: www.coinstar.com