Alcoa recycles cans for wedding fund

DENVER (AP) - Traditional weddings call for something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. Alcoa Inc. is giving an engaged Spokane, Wash., couple something aluminum — 150,000 cans to be exact.

Andrea Parrish and Peter Geyer are asking people to recycle crunched up, used aluminum cans and donate the cash to help pay for their wedding.

Alcoa, the giant aluminum manufacturer based in Pittsburgh, won't deliver the cans to Spokane but will make a donation equivalent to that area's recycling rates, estimated at $1,710, Alcoa spokesman Mike Belwood said.

The couple's campaign goes along with Alcoa's goal of reaching a 75 percent recycling rate by 2015.

With the Alcoa donation, Parrish said they are about 65 percent toward their goal.

Parrish, 25, and Geyer, 29, are self-described "enviro-geeks" who do what they can to promote environmental conservation, like recycling.

When they decided to get married, the marketing consultant and digital print technician knew financing would be difficult. Raising the money through a recycling campaign seemed to be a no-brainer.

They established a Web site, Facebook and Twitter accounts to publicize their campaign, and set up can donation sites around the area.

Folks who live outside Spokane are encouraged to recycle and use the money as a treat for themselves or donate to the wedding fund.

The couple plans to spend the night in the hotel where the reception is being held, but guests can expect a small departing gift: "We're going to put aluminum cans on everybody else's cars," Parrish said.

To recycle, of course.