It was hard to hear anything besides the clanking of cans and howling wind as Ryan Ellis shoveled his next recycling drop-off into the back of his trailer, parked beside Sacred Waters Brewing Company along U.S. 2.  

It’s a labor of love for Ellis, who has always been an avid recycler. Over the last year, he’s been collecting cans at various locations and donating a portion of his proceeds to local nonprofits, like Gateway to Glacier.  

“I don’t like to see stuff get wasted,” he said.  

Ellis grew up collecting cans with his grandfather, who was a dentist in Cape Cod. Even though he didn’t need the money, he was a product of the Great Depression and “saw value in everything.” 

Ellis carries that same attitude and saw an opportunity to collect the massive amounts of cans disposed of at local events and businesses.  

Living in Coram, he collected cans in his backyard for years, taking them to Pacific Steel and Recycling on Earth Day. He also started to haul cans off for customers of his lawn care business.  

The model of collecting cans to give back to the community was something he saw as a child in South Carolina.  

“My elementary school had a can trailer just like this, 30 years ago. So, when I started doing this, I called them and was like ‘How does this work?’ The South Carolina Firefighters Burned Children's Fund are the ones that started it there and it’s still going ... They have trailers all over the state,” he said. 

The organization raises money to help childhood burn victims, which includes financial support, care kits and hosting an annual summer camp. The statewide recycling initiatives raise between $80,000 to $100,000 annually, according to an August 2025 article from WMBF News of Mrytle Beach, South Carolina.   

“They made it easy, so I wanted to replicate it here,” Ellis said.  

Ellis’ work in the wider community started many years ago at Cabin Fever Days, when he saw an opportunity to put out recycling bins for aluminum cans. Then Columbia Falls Community Market was interested.  

Talking with Melissa Ellis, with the community market, he mentioned wanting to build a trailer to start picking up cans from the market she agreed. Pursuit was recruited to donate $2,000 worth of collection bins. Later, an anonymous donor gave funds for more trailers, which Jerry Sandven of Country Muffler in rural Columbia Falls helped build. 

Those recycling trailers sit at Sacred Waters Brewing Company, Park Provisions in Coram, the Columbia Falls Community Market and as well as fishing access sites at Teakettle and Lake Five, in cooperation with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.  

His “mothership” trailer is used to collect cans from each location, which he takes to Pacific Steel and Recycling. During his latest run, Ellis dumped his mountain of cans onto the belt, which will be pressed into bales, and then headed into the office to collect his earnings.  

With typically around 1,000 pounds of cans on the trailer, he brings in around $600 per load. The most he’s ever made is around $800. 

But he didn’t want to keep all of those profits. He donates proceeds to the Flathead River Alliance, Gateway to Glacier and the Coram-West Glacier Fire Department. He's also working with Project Whitefish Kids to put a trailer at Smith Fields.  

Each nonprofit gets 25% of the proceeds and the other 50% to Ellis for upkeep of the trailers and to haul the cans to Pacific Steel and Recycling, according to a story in the Hungry Horse News last summer. 

“With the trailers, I thought it’d be nice to share the money. Like, I don't need all the money. I want to give people a reason to do it,” Ellis said.  

Reporter Taylor Inman can be reached at 406-758-4440 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.