One area of recycling I found that was decent and is often overlooked, was/is paper recycling. It sort of an untapped market for the little guy. I will now explain how I did it for the benefit of anyone that wants to give it a try. If it's been mentioned on here, I apologize.
I still save, but not as hardcore as before. When I had more free time, I had a decent system going. I was an assistant manager at a small chain retail store in my area. he town was small, not tiny, but not a city either. A few main routes connected through Main Street. We have several convenience stores and a couple grocery stores. All within a mile of each other. Anyways at night they throw all the newspapers that didn't sale out. I simply told them that I was recycling them in an effort to keep them out of landfills, and to get them re-used. I asked if I could put a plastic tote in the backroom or by the dumpster, where ever I could, and they could place the papers in there instead of the dumpsters. Everyone I asked said yes. One paper had the clerks rip the top 1/2 of the front page off to be returned so they could keep tabs on what sold and what didn't, but I told the manager that wasn't a bother. I would be by to pick them up in my travels when they were full.
In my experience, i would have to pick up about twice a week, once on Sunday mornings for the week's haul, and then on Monday's, because the Sunday papers usually filled a tote. It could vary wildly some weeks, but that was the general rule. Somewhat seasonal at times too. But it would depend on your area for your own output. Just let them know that if there is any overflow they can just dump it, that way you are not a pain in the arse when they have too many papers you didn't pick up.
Each tote/tub I had weighed around 100 lbs when full. I would empty them and store the papers in detergent boxes (the boxes the big liquid bottles came in 2 at a time) I picked up from work. They had handles, and were very sturdy and heavy, and the recycler let me throw the whole box into the weight bin instead of dumping them all out. The recyclers paid .03/lb, which, when I started, steel was at $20 a ton, so paper was three times as much, and required less muscle work, stacked nice in my truck, didn't beat it up, was safer going down the road, was given to me freely with people saving it for me without me hunting it up or wanting a cut. Just nicer to work with overall, IMO.
On average, I figured I made $5 a week from each store, x 5 stores. Sometimes more, sometimes less, (some weeks it went in the dumpster as I couldn't pick it up in time. But with even less then a handful of stores, you should bring in between $500-1000 a year at least, probably closer to $800. One of the third shift clerks asked me once when I was picking them up on a Saturday night about what I had going on. He said it seemed like too much for $5 a week. I told him it was on my way, it helped the planet, and that I squeeze one or two extra mortgage payments a year out of stuff they were just throwing away, and then I explained to him how many years just one extra payment a year shaves off of a mortgage and he was like "WTF?!" I actually think he didn't believe me about that part, but whatever. To me that extra "free" payment was the real cash cow of the program.
And on a side note, with the extreme couponing craze going on now, there is another revenue generating stream just putting the groups of Sundays coupons up on craigslist for the people that do that and want as many of them little money savers as possible.
I got out of it years ago because I got a new job, gas at the time climbed almost to $4 a gallon, and it became a lot more profitable to haul metal which went through the roof and has been high ever since. Now that I am self-employed with more time, and gas is a tad cheaper, I am thinking about doing it again.
But basically it depends on several factors. You don't want to drive all over tarnation to get them, but if you have several places close by each other, and they have three or four variety of papers (and hopefully more), and you have a dry place to store them until you're ready to haul in a truckload, you might want to give it a try. The paper and boxes are free (I found people actually were kinda happy feel-good about giving them to me), there is nothing to strip, clean, or separate (just grab and go, really), and if you put all that money you make in a safe spot and put it on a debt all at once, you just saved a ton of interest.
Not for everybody, and it's not metal, but it is free, good for the environment, and piles up quicker then you would think. Just throwing it out there, as a side note. For me it was great, because the place I took it was about a 1/2 mile from the scrapyard, so I could haul both. Papers in the truck, and scrap in the trailer.
I still save, but not as hardcore as before. When I had more free time, I had a decent system going. I was an assistant manager at a small chain retail store in my area. he town was small, not tiny, but not a city either. A few main routes connected through Main Street. We have several convenience stores and a couple grocery stores. All within a mile of each other. Anyways at night they throw all the newspapers that didn't sale out. I simply told them that I was recycling them in an effort to keep them out of landfills, and to get them re-used. I asked if I could put a plastic tote in the backroom or by the dumpster, where ever I could, and they could place the papers in there instead of the dumpsters. Everyone I asked said yes. One paper had the clerks rip the top 1/2 of the front page off to be returned so they could keep tabs on what sold and what didn't, but I told the manager that wasn't a bother. I would be by to pick them up in my travels when they were full.
In my experience, i would have to pick up about twice a week, once on Sunday mornings for the week's haul, and then on Monday's, because the Sunday papers usually filled a tote. It could vary wildly some weeks, but that was the general rule. Somewhat seasonal at times too. But it would depend on your area for your own output. Just let them know that if there is any overflow they can just dump it, that way you are not a pain in the arse when they have too many papers you didn't pick up.
Each tote/tub I had weighed around 100 lbs when full. I would empty them and store the papers in detergent boxes (the boxes the big liquid bottles came in 2 at a time) I picked up from work. They had handles, and were very sturdy and heavy, and the recycler let me throw the whole box into the weight bin instead of dumping them all out. The recyclers paid .03/lb, which, when I started, steel was at $20 a ton, so paper was three times as much, and required less muscle work, stacked nice in my truck, didn't beat it up, was safer going down the road, was given to me freely with people saving it for me without me hunting it up or wanting a cut. Just nicer to work with overall, IMO.
On average, I figured I made $5 a week from each store, x 5 stores. Sometimes more, sometimes less, (some weeks it went in the dumpster as I couldn't pick it up in time. But with even less then a handful of stores, you should bring in between $500-1000 a year at least, probably closer to $800. One of the third shift clerks asked me once when I was picking them up on a Saturday night about what I had going on. He said it seemed like too much for $5 a week. I told him it was on my way, it helped the planet, and that I squeeze one or two extra mortgage payments a year out of stuff they were just throwing away, and then I explained to him how many years just one extra payment a year shaves off of a mortgage and he was like "WTF?!" I actually think he didn't believe me about that part, but whatever. To me that extra "free" payment was the real cash cow of the program.
And on a side note, with the extreme couponing craze going on now, there is another revenue generating stream just putting the groups of Sundays coupons up on craigslist for the people that do that and want as many of them little money savers as possible.
I got out of it years ago because I got a new job, gas at the time climbed almost to $4 a gallon, and it became a lot more profitable to haul metal which went through the roof and has been high ever since. Now that I am self-employed with more time, and gas is a tad cheaper, I am thinking about doing it again.
But basically it depends on several factors. You don't want to drive all over tarnation to get them, but if you have several places close by each other, and they have three or four variety of papers (and hopefully more), and you have a dry place to store them until you're ready to haul in a truckload, you might want to give it a try. The paper and boxes are free (I found people actually were kinda happy feel-good about giving them to me), there is nothing to strip, clean, or separate (just grab and go, really), and if you put all that money you make in a safe spot and put it on a debt all at once, you just saved a ton of interest.
Not for everybody, and it's not metal, but it is free, good for the environment, and piles up quicker then you would think. Just throwing it out there, as a side note. For me it was great, because the place I took it was about a 1/2 mile from the scrapyard, so I could haul both. Papers in the truck, and scrap in the trailer.
