How Much Money Do We Vacuum Up Per Year in Canada?

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“Clackity, clackity, thud” is the sound a coin makes while going through the beater bar of my vacuum cleaner. I am a busy mom, girlfriend and business owner. Sometimes in my desparate search for an ordered environment, I hastily pass over a stray dime or nickel; making me wonder just how much of our hard earned Canadian cash is going into our landfills via vacuum canisters. Most of my home has hard wood floors, , so sweeping up money becomes an issue as well. I have to way the pros and cons in my head – hmmm do I want to reach into the dirty dustpan, rifle through the dust bunnies, bread clips and petrified chip crumbs for a dime? Is it really worth it? Some people wouldn’t even get their hands dirty for a toonie or loonie (Canadian $2 and $1 coins), let alone a quarter. I am not in the habit of casually throwing my money around with wild abandon, so I am not faced with this financial quandry every time I sweep or vacuum, but it comes up enough that it got me thinking. If my housecleaning represents the average consciencesiousness of Canadian homes – a little messy, but mostly clean. I figure; maybe $.50 makes it into the bag or pan in a year.

If there are 12,437,470 households in Canada (according to the latest Stats Can tally from 2006), each vacuuming or sweeping an average of $.50, then we are throwing away over 6 million dollars in, well; dollars every year!!! The garbage dump is more than just bear and seagull food! That is just for one year. Imagine decades worth of coins.

We probably vacuum more money from our cars than our homes. If we use those commercial car vacuums found at most gas stations, 3 times per year, we are probably losing up to $1 total – a conservative estimate, given our $1 and $2 coins. According to Statistics Canada, there are 21,261,660 registered vehicles that weigh less than 4500 kilograms (which encompasses most family vehicles), those vacuums are sucking up over $21 million dollars every year. Oil companies should be paying US to use their vacuums.