Brandy from Team Chandler emailed in the following tip:
Recently, we started recycling aluminum cans in our home. While the price varies per pound, it has been up to $0.60 a pound in my area. As we use aluminum cans, we wash them out, smash them and place them in a separate garbage can. Once we have collected enough cans, we take them to our local recycling company.
While each trip may only yield $10-20, for a young child it provides so much more than that. They are able to care for resources by recycling what they can and share in that ownership of being a good steward. It allows them to see that we should be mindful of how we use up items. The extra cash to put towards something they have set buying goals for doesn’t hurt either!
Brandy is a homeschool mom of two who enjoys running, couponing, blogging, and caring for her family. You can visit her blog at Team Chandler.
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{ 37 comments }
One of my son’s chores is to smash, organize and keep track of our cans. We don’t use a lot of cans but usually get about $20 every few months!
He gets to keep half of the money and then puts the other half in his savings account at the bank.
Wonderful! My son is really into this program and loves earning money to save up for things. Win-win for everyone.
I’ve thought about this but the only thing is I don’t drink soda (at all) and I’ve convinced my husband to drastically limit it from what he used to drink for both health and money reasons so it would take us forever (think a year to even fill a grocery bag full of smashed cans) to make it worth the gas to go in. Do you (or any other readers) have any experience with other paid recycling like plastic bottles? Especially when we move back to Cali it would be nice to offset some of the CRV fee but I don’t have any idea how they do plastic (like if it is a set amount per bottle/jug or if you can smash it and get per pound like aluminum, etc).
We have a school locally that collects other materials as a fundraiser. They have drop off centers set up. We go through lots of glass and jars. I just ate to throw it out.
oh yes I don’t throw it out, I do recycle paper, cans, glass, plastic bottles/jugs, and plastic bags. I just wish I knew how to make a little money on it
In Hawaii they went by weight. We would have everything sorted into garage bags before we went to the recycling place. Empty the bags into their garage cans, they would get weighted and we would get the cash for it. In the end we made money because most of the glass was from the parties that we had every weekend, the guys bought their own beer and would toss it in our recycle container. We could have made out better, if we were brave enough to dumpster dive at the barracks on Monday morning. Got to love our single service members!!!
haha good idea. I should have my husband do that lol
Rae,
The CRV fee is 5 cents per bottle in California. It certainly adds up. We saved all our plastic water bottles or juice bottles that have the CA CRV symbol on it to a recycling center a couple times a year. The center paid you by the weight of the bottles. I usually get back about $10 for two large garbage bags. Hope that help!
Thanks for the info. So since they do it by weight you can smash them up right?
Rae,
Yes, you could smash them up. Just make sure you remove the caps on them. They will paid you for the weight on the caps too, but they don’t want it on the bottles. They will put all bottles into a machine to further flatten them.
I’m interested in getting paid to recycle our cans… we drink a lot of pop at my house, as well as at my boyfriend’s house. Where can I find out about places in my area that do this kind of thing?
Google it. I found one in SLC and called this morning. Super easy. I can’t wait to start.
For those in SLC, Metro Group (801-328-2051) pays $.52 a pound for cans.
Awesome! I am glad you found something locally. You can’t beat making a little money for something you already have.
Judy, I would think you could just recycle your cans at the grocery store. I bring mine there all the time! Although, they’re not smashed. Smashing them would take up a lot less space in the house. I’m not sure the machines where I live take them unless they’re in the original shape?
I have never heard of that! I guess I’ll have to look into it
I have just never heard of getting paid to recycle anything, very interesting. Learn something new everyday 
TY
It depends on the state you live in. In Michigan, we pay a .10 deposit on every bottle and can of soda (and energy drinks) we buy and then return them to the store and get that .10 back. But most states, I believe, don’t have a program like that and you have to take them to a recycling center where they weigh them and then pay you based on the weight.
Yep, I’m originally from Kentucky and there you could recycle bags and sometimes plastic bottle and cans in the bins outside the store, but you didn’t get any money for them. Growing up we took items to the recycling center which was usually a parking lot of some building that had huge divided dumpsters in them.
Here in Iowa you pay $0.05 for every bottle or can of pop or alcohol. You get that money back if you take your non-crushed cans and bottles to the machines at Walmart or Target or other grocery stores that have them – you get a ticket print out of what you’ve earned back and take that ticket (and any can/bottle rejects) to the Customer Service counter for your money, or present them at checkout. It’s a nice system to encourage recycling, but annoying that anything that doesn’t offer a deposit requires more effort for recycling.
I’m so confused… I’ve never heard of getting paid to recycle. May places you have to pay money just to drop off your recycling. I live in Michigan and we pay a 10 cent deposit on all pop cans and bottles, when you return them to the grocery store you get your 10 cents each back. Other than that, I found a place at the local university where you can drop off recycling and it costs (and pays) nothing. They accept almost anything. Plastics #1-7, metal, glass (except not green), cardboard, boxboard (recently learned not same as cardboard!), paper, newspaper, etc.
Yep, in Michigan you have to pay to take your stuff to be recycled (unless it’s taken to one of those free-standing bins). Except for pop bottles and cans. It depends on the state and what programs they have implemented. I know my in-laws in SD don’t have to pay a deposit on pop cans, but they don’t get one back either. They save them up and take them to the recycle center and get X amount of money per pound.
I just started doing this. I have about 2 big bags of cans! Last week it was $.50 per pound. Now its $.65 per pound!! We drink a lot of soda. Caffeeine free mostly for me. I really hope this pays off!
Yay! It is my understanding (in some areas at least) the rates are high right now. Usually it is around a nickel a pound maybe, but $.65 a pound is awesome!
I guess I’m with Casey. We have curbside recycling here (which we pay for along with our trash collection) and the other places I lived we either had to pay per trunk load to recycle anything or just got to drop it off “for free”, excluding the gas for the trip. In the later case, drop-offs in the grocery store parking lot were the most convenient, though they didn’t take everything the main center did!
We did live in Michigan and Iowa which had a 10 cent and 5 cent deposit respectively on bottles and cans, redeemable at the grocery store. I guess I just hadn’t heard of getting paid to recycle before!
Also a Michigander here. Back in the day, before recycling was “in” my family collected newspapers, door to door or at the curb where people would just through them out, and take them to a paper only recycle place and were paid a few dollars per car load. We had piles to the roof in our garage. We would drive up and they would weigh our car with the load then after it was unloaded in order to figure amounts. It was the kids way of making a bit of money back then. A lot of hard work for the parents. We now have curbside pickup which is paid for with our taxes. Anything else taken to the drop off site, we pay for them to take it.
If you all love to recycle you need to check out http://www.freecycle.org
This site promotes recycling EVERYTHING!!!! Check it out, you will love it!!
I am definitely going to check this out. We have lots of electronics that need to be recycled.
Iowa gives charges you 5 cents/can/2 liter of soda when you purchase. If you return them, you get that nickel back. Only now it’s getting harder and harder to find stores that will take back the cans due to sanitary reasons.
In our small town, there is supposedly curb-side recycling but I have yet to see that truck. I think the garbage men throw it in the garbage truck.
my 4 year old loves to go to the recycling center. We just made a trip over there (next town) this past weekend with all the cardboard and other stuff from over the winter. I can walk in my garage now!
We have curbside recycling here, and my 6 year old is in charge of getting the recyclables out (we help him with the heavy stuff). He yells at us if we put even one piece of paper in the trash can instead of the recycling bin.
I recycled cans years ago as a child and got money back from them. These days no business around me pays for recycling, we just get curbside recycling service as part of our monthly city trash bill. I’d love to get paid to recycle again.
Almost who didn’t at one time or another get money for cans!Sadly that shows we are not real young anymore!
We have a small version of our trash can for recycling in Wake Forest.North Carolina.I can fill ours almost every week and have one bag of trash .
I’m not so sure that we can get paid for recycling in my area, but I have noticed that since we’ve started recycling, I haven’t had to buy garbage bags for quite some time now. Though small, I am really enjoying the savings.
I also feel good about helping to protect our environment. Good post.
I feel the same way. We use our trash bags twice. The new bag starts in the recycling bin, when it is full we dump the recycling into the ‘trash can’ for curbside pickup and then use the trash bag for trash.
We save about $15 a year on bags but it is big savings for the environment.
We have been doing this for about 2 1/2 years and use it to supplement our college savings funds for our two boys.
Tips:
-Get others to help you save their cans. Think grandparents, cousins, neighbors, etc
-Save the cans anytime you go to a party. Just bring a box and say you recycle cans. Everyone loves this.
-See if your / your spouse’s workplace will let you take the cans to recycle.
-Pick them up when you take a walk in your neighborhood
I just took a load cans today and got $46.
And had to add, ironically…we don’t even drink pop! So think outside the box.
While I applaud everyone’s interest in making money recycling and using this as a teachable moment…It seems to me that the focus of this should be the teaching our children to be responsible stewards of our planet by recycling everything that can be recycled whether they get paid to do it or have to pay to have the stuff recycled. I live in an area that curbside recycling is included in our monthly garbage bill and it makes me upset every recycle day how few people actually recycle. I recently learned that it actually costs the garbage company less per ton to recycle than it does to put the same amount in a landfill.
I recycle too. Every few months. It may not earn much money, but every bit counts. Plus, as you said it’s good to care for our resources.
we save soda cans and take them in a couple times a year. Here, you go to the local scrap metal yards. There always seem to be a long line for aluminum cans and even for the bigger loads of metal. It’s a great way to make some money off a broken appliance also! Die hard “junkers” even advertise that they will haul off your scrap for you(some pay you, some don’t, I had a car that that blew the engine and since hubby was out of state, I just called a couple junkers, they presented their offer, and hauled the dead car off. I got $125, and didnt have to hassle with the thing myself..yes I prob could have got more if I took in myself but that’s the price you pay for a little convienence)
I live in CT where our beverage cans and bottles are 5c deposit – you have to pay the 5c when you buy the bottles, but get it back if you bring them back to the store. It’s a shame that the machines are always broken or full or the barcodes are hard to read, and it’s SUCH a pain to get it done! As far as the rest of the recycling goes, we have a paid garbage collector (we have no state- or town-paid pickup, if you don’t hire a private company, you have to pay to drop your garbage off at the dump!) who also collects the recycling, which includes cardboard, plastic containers #1-7, glass, aluminum, tin, and so on. They’ve recently opened free recycling centers in two local towns’ dumps where you’re allowed to bring all your recyclables if you don’t have a private collector (or have a huge amount of something) and everything’s sorted by type – magazines, cardboard, bottles, etc. But it’s only recently they made this free – I don’t think they’d ever pay us for it!!