This is scientific Americans 60 second science. I'm Karen Hopkins. This will just take a minute.

Trash can't talk, obviously. But your recycling can still say a lot about you.

For example, the bottles you put in the blue bin can reveal how much alcohol you drink.

Or so say scientists from the Ohio State University.

They set up a recycling program as a way to track alcohol consumption at a senior center in San Diego.

They pour over their data in the journal Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research.

Managers at this particular housing complex had been concerned about alcohol abuse among their older residents.

Binge drinking can be as bad for these seniors as it is for those in college.

So researchers placed recycling bins on five floors at the center and checked

them twice a week for more than a year. They counted all the beer, wine, and liquor bottles

and calculated how much hooch the folks at the home were putting away.

The boozing peaked around holiday time,

and in the days after the residents received their social security checks.

The results could allow social workers to target their prevention programs to times when the residents are most likely to tipple.

And they provide an environmentally friendly way to keep tabs on any group of residents who might be indulging in one too many.

Thanks for the minute.

For Scientific Americans, 60 Second Science, I'm Karen Hopkins.