A retired couple in their eighties raise money for their church by collecting and crushing aluminum cans and taking them to a recycling center.

They get some cans -- and some exercise -- by walking along the berms of two-lane country roads littered by the lazy. But they get most of their cans from family members, friends and fellow church-goers.

Bags of cans usually are dropped off in front of the sliding door of a red and green shed behind the couple's white frame home. After the cans are crushed and bagged, the bags are stored behind the shed on weather-worn wooden pallets and covered by sheets of metal siding.

The husband, a retired carpenter and laborer, built an arm-powered wooden can crusher that makes up in efficiency what it lacks in appearance. The couple are a model of efficiency when it's time to crush cans.

After opening each bag, she uses a pair of pliers to twist off the tabs and releases them into a bag. She gives the tabs to a family member who takes them to a Ronald McDonald House. Her husband puts each can into the crusher, crumples it and watches it fall into a large garbage bag.

The acquiescence of the cans to the law of gravity "is the only automated part of our system," he said with a smile.

When the bags are full, he ties them shut and weighs them. If the weight doesn't come out to an even number of pounds -- and it seldom does -- he rounds down and records that number in a small notebook.

They contacted me about what they said was a recurring problem at the recycling center where they take their cans.

"They say our cans don't weigh as much as our records show they do," the husband said. "The difference isn't much, about 10 pounds or so. But if they are shortchanging other people by the same amount, that adds up." They get about 60 cents a pound for their aluminum cans.

I drove to the recycling center some miles away, a busy, noisy place where a line of pickup trucks waited to unload. Most of the drivers appeared to be senior citizens. When it was their turn to unload, they put their cans out for the employees to pick up, walk inside and weigh.

I walked inside and watched the operation. One employee put the bags on a scale and called out the weight to another employee who wrote it down. When all the bags were weighed and recorded, the drivers walked over to a pay counter. They told the clerk who to make the check out to -- frequently a church or a charity -- and then left.

If the drivers were being shortchanged, what was happening?

I looked at the scale. How accurate was it? In Allegheny County, such scales are inspected annually by its Bureau of Weights and Measures. But this recycling center is in a rural county and it doesn't have such a bureau. As with other small counties, it relies on the state agriculture department's Weights and Measures Division to handle such inspections.

I watched the guy weighing the bags. He had a set routine and seldom varied from it. He put two bags on the scale, put two more bags on top of them and then called out the total weight. Sometimes the corner -- and a little more -- of one of the bottom bags rested on the floor. And he never let go of the top two bags. Was he ever so slightly holding them up?

Bags that aren't completely on the scale definitely shortchange the consumer. And if the guy was lifting the top two bags a little or a lot, that also would cheat the consumer.

Recycling centers, in turn, worry about consumers cheating them by not draining all the liquid out of the cans or, worse yet, putting a little dirt or debris in them to increase the weight.

I told the couple about my visit to the recycling center. I said if they wanted to continue going there that they ask that the bags be weighed individually and that one of them stand by the scale to confirm the weight. They said they'd consider that, but also said they might go to another recycling center.

If you live in a county that doesn't have a weights and measures bureau and you don't think you're getting a fair shake at a supermarket, gas station, recycling center and any other place where products are sold by weight or measure, call the state Weights and Measures Division toll-free at 1-877-837-8007.