RECYCLE? Can, said Mr. Robin Tan. So he collected 10,000 cans.

Can make money too, he found out. He pocketed $100 for his "collection" yesterday. Mr. Tan, 41, is the lounge supervisor of the SAF NCO Club. He sold the 10,000 empty stout and beer cans to a recycling company.

That’s not bad when you consider they would have been worthless otherwise.

Mr. Tan said: "It all began with last year’s Crush of 91 campaign. Asia Pacific Breweries organized the Crush project.

"My team came in fourth and won $2,000. We got hooked and decided to carry on recycling."

"All I needed was a little teamwork," added the enterprising supervisor. Mr. Tan and his assistant teamed up with five bartenders to collect the cans. They will split the money, he said.

"At the end of the day, we poured all the cans into trash bags and tied them up," he said.

After about three months, they had filled 70 bags. They kept them in the club’s basement storeroom. Said Mr. Tan: "It was taking up too much space, so we decided it was time to sell it."

Asia Metals, a recycling company, was willing to pay about one cent for each aluminum can.

"It was really very simple," said a happy Mr. Tan. He and some of his colleagues posed for photographs with the bags of empty cans before a truck took them away.

He said: "I’m glad to be rid of it, but it’s all money you know."

IN Singapore, it is mostly beer cans that are made of aluminium.

Research figures provided by Asia Metals (Pte) Ltd show that over 80 per cent of carbonated drink cans are made of steel. The rest are imported cans, which are made of aluminum.

Singapore goes through about 450 million cans of beer and carbonated drinks per year.

This compares with: