Meet Ryan: The 13-year-old who turns discarded cans into support for charities

A 13-year-old boy has turned thousands of discarded drink cans into a regular source of funding for food banks and charities in the West Midlands. Ryan came up with the idea after wanting to use his spare time to help people in need. What began as a simple collection project has grown into a community effort, with residents and businesses saving bags of aluminium cans for his family to collect. Around 20,000 cans are gathered each week and taken to the family's Solihull garage, where they are crushed and sold as scrap. The money raised after costs is then donated to good causes.How a 13-year-old turned cans into a charity projectAccording to BBC reports, Ryan's project operates through We Can CIC, a Community Interest Company set up around the collection and recycling of aluminium drink cans. The 13-year-old wanted something he could do in his spare time to support people and eventually settled on collecting cans as a practical way to raise funds.The scale of the work is now considerably larger than a typical weekend project. People and businesses gather their empty cans into bags, which Ryan's family then collects. The material is taken to the family's garage in Solihull, where th...