The problem is largely just that the refund you get back is not big enough for the amount of effort you have to put in, and that's true right now. Most aluminum recyclers here in Washington are paying about 30-45 cents a pound for scrap aluminum. I saved soda, beer and energy drink cans for nearly two straight years in bags in a storage space in my apartment, then loaded the bags up in my car and took them to a recycler only to get $4.50 for my two years of work.

It didn't hurt me to do it, and I like that I directly contributed to recycling that metal instead of it going to a landfill, but the amount of effort I put in for 15 pounds of cans to get less than $5 means it's not really worth the time or money to be doing that myself.