Small Change

 can tabs / clean the air and help the homeless
small change is gonna bust a cap in yo’ asthma!

Boy, do I love drinking beer! I can describe, in perfect detail, the toilet bowl in soul bar, the floor of sky city, the front lawn of Augusta State University, and several other places I have landed after a few too many. Many of you, I am sure, share my beer-loving sentiment. Well, beer-drinking brethren, this is an intervention! A wake-up call! KEEP DRINKING BEER! Just, be sure you save the bottle caps. 

Matt Davis, a student at the Medical College of Georgia, is collecting these spent beer caps in an effort to raise money for the homeless and uninsured patrons of St. Vincent’s Clinic. 

He calls his project Small Change because he believes the seemingly insignificant act of bottle cap recycling could help raise awareness about some rather massive issues, not the least of which is the rising cost of health care. This issue, according to Davis, is about to become glaringly obvious to the 25 million Americans who are dependent upon MDI’s (metered dose inhalers) to help control Asthma and other chronic lung diseases.

Davis says that the United States Government, in an effort to end the environmentally devastating effects of chloro-floro-carbons (CFC’S), is banning the use of these harmful gases in MDI’s. Current inhalers use CFC’s as a propellant to ’spray’ the medicine into the lungs of patients. Though the positive environmental effects of this CFC ban are a step in the right direction, the financial effects, particularly among the poor, homeless, and uninsured, will be catastrophic. 

The New Journal of Medicine predicts that the new government implemented eco-friendly propellant will nearly triple the cost of MDI’s. The folks who use the services at the grant-funded St. Vincent’s Clinic, which is already behind on their pharmacy bills, will feel the effects of this price jump immensely. This is where Matt and Small Change step in. 

In thinking about what to do about this problem, Matt looked at other problems that plague Augusta’s downtown community. Immediately, recycling came into his mind. 

“It’s embarrassing,” Matt says, “that more business downtown do not recycle.” Particularly discouraged by the non-recycling trends of bars and restaurants, Matt decided to raise environmental awareness in the food and booze industries. “Almost everything a bar throws away can be recycled,” Davis realized. 

Suddenly, it all clicked. He could cause a positive change in the recycling habits of bars that would benefit the homeless and uninsured people at St. Vincent’s Clinic. At this point, he decided to rescue two birds with one bottle cap. 

Inspired by a group of people called “scrappers” who make their living by exchanging recyclable goods for cash at recycling centers, Matt found out that metals yield the most profit at recycle centers. Pure aluminum rakes in about three dollars a pound while steel delivers two dollars a pound. Bottle caps seemed an achievable recycling target, and though the caps yield only 65 cents per pound, Matt figured that if 10 bars produce 10 pounds of bottle caps per week, he could raise $65 a week for St. Vincent’s Clinic. 

Small Change is placing bottle cap repositories in participating downtown bars with a sign alerting people to the objectives of the “Asthma Caps” drive. He will then take the caps to the recycling center, get the money, and donate all of it to St. Vincent’s Clinic. 

Through this drive, Matt says Small Change hopes to, “make a dent in some of the price of asthma medication” for the many people at St. Vincent’s Clinic. Eventually, Matt hopes to find a business willing to match his donations to the clinic.

In addition to this drive, Small Change hopes to bring recycling downtown permanently, get more bike racks downtown, and repair the sprinkler systems. Though each of these steps seem like rather small changes, the lasting benefits will be something to which we can all tip our caps. 

Bottles and cans and just clap your hands for Small Change. 

For more information contact Matt Davis at 706.513.9003 and start saving those caps! I’ve saved three since I started writing this article! (Aluminum can tabs will also be collected.)