Close

‘I’ve raised £18k for charity by recycling 1.5m West Midlands drink cans - here's how to get involved’

Watch West Midlands schoolboy Ryan explaining how he raises money for charity by recycling drinks cans and how you can get involved.

By Jessica Martin
Published

A 13-year-old West Midlands boy has raised thousands of pounds for charity by recycling more than one million cans. 

Ryan Hulance came up with the idea as a way to make money for foodbanks while also caring for the environment. The green teen started contacting businesses near where he lives in Solihull, asking if they could spare any cans which he could sell.

Image shows Ryan Hulance, who started We Can CIC (Community Interest Company) - an initiative to collect cans to help good causes, at home in Solihull, West Midlands.
Ryan Hulance, who started We Can CIC (Community Interest Company) - an initiative to collect cans to help good causes, at home in Solihull, West Midlands.

Scrap metal firms pay between 20p and 90p per kilogram of aluminium - the equivalent of around 65 cans.

Ryan started collecting a few hundred cans per week in 2023 which he stored at his home. To save space, his parents would crush the cans by driving over them in their car before Ryan bagged them up. 

Last year, Ryan collected eight tonnes of cans which raised around £6,000 - around 75p per kg - which he donated to a women’s charity. Over the last three years, Ryan has recycled an estimated 1.5 million cans - coining in around £18,000 which he has donated to charity. The kind-hearted youngster now collects 20,000 cans a week and even set up his own company, called We Can CIC (Community Interest Company).

Image shows Ryan Hulance, who started We Can CIC (Community Interest Company) - an initiative to collect cans to help good causes, putting a can into a crusher in his garage at home in Solihull, West Midlands.
Ryan Hulance, who started We Can CIC (Community Interest Company) - an initiative to collect cans to help good causes, puts a can into a crusher in his garage at home in Solihull, West Midlands.

His family, who run a garage, were given an industrial crushing machine which bundles Ryan’s cans into large metal ‘bales’. He is hoping to regularly recycle one tonne of cans a month from the 200 regular suppliers. The schoolboy dedicates around 20 hours a week to his charity recycling, collecting cans after school and at weekends. 

He said: “Sometimes I think I’d rather be playing video games with my friends, because I'm 13 years old. But actually when I think about it more deeply, I really love what I do because I get to help people and families who are in need.  

"I came up with the idea because I wanted to help people and the environment at the same time. I came up with recycling cans and it just took off from there.” 

The family hope their idea will also help Birmingham with its recycling crisis due to the bin workers' strike. 

Ryan’s mum Karima, 48, said: “We are very proud of Ryan and really want to help him expand. The cans come from around 200 regular suppliers but we want to broaden that to many thousands. For the last three months we have recycled one tonne per month but we are capable of much much more.”