HOW TO START YOUR OWN PAPER
RECYCLING BUSINESS
One of the easiest, most environmentally sound, and popular ways of making extra money
is by recycling. One of the easiest products to recycle is old newspapers. By selling them
to a local recycling plant in your area, you can not only gain a lucrative income, but you
can help your community conserve water, energy, and of course, trees.
Believe it or not, you can develop a very respectable income collecting and selling
paper to the recycling centers. It certainly does not take any education, specialized
training or experience. It is as simple as saving your old newspapers and turning them in
to a central collection depot. Some paper recyclers are making more than $100,000 a year
in this business. If other people are doing it, then there's no reason you can't do it as
well! About the only equipment you'll need is a pickup truck or trailer that you can pull
along behind your personal car. We even found one "old timer" who was collecting
paper in this area with a pushcart!
The prices currently being paid for paper by the recycling centers will vary from city
to city, depending upon the amount of paper already available to the local plant. As the
demand for products made from recycled paper rises, the price for old paper will also
rise. Currently, newspapers and other newsprint products are bought for $50 per ton and
more. Used cardboard now sells for $75 per ton. High grade office paper (bond) is
purchased by recycling plants for as much as $120 per ton. You can generally pick up all
the paper you want around your city for free, turning it into a handsome profit! Your
success depends on how well you organize and how hard you work at building your business.
Ever since the days of the ancient Chinese and Egyptians, Man has been recycling paper.
In ancient days the incredible cost, human labor, and time consumed in manufacturing paper
from rice and papyrus stalks made the product a precious commodity. Old manuscripts often
were carefully erased so that the paper might be reused. Nowadays, paper is
massproduced from tree pulp. However, the ever increasing demand for paper of all
types, combined with the limited supply of natural resources, makes paper a product whose
value is ever increasing. Too often after a quick use we throw paper away by the ton
literally. Consider your daily newspaper. Weighing an average of twelve ounces, a single
family will throw out 275 pounds of newsprint per year! This doesn't take into
consideration all the advertising flyers left on your doorstep, received through the mail,
or picked up at the grocery store. And what about all the letters you receive, glance at,
then toss in the trash? This means that there's about 10 billion dollars worth of paper
out there that can be collected and recycled each year. So if you are looking to start a
business with real profit potential, what are you waiting for?
Just look around your own home. Chances are that all the waste paper fills the trash
cans or just piles up in some corner of the garage or basement until one of the kids asks
if he can haul it off for the school paper drive. Or maybe you get ambitious some weekend,
clean out the garage, and haul it all off to the collection truck at one of the local
shopping centers. Waste paper, especially newsprint, composes seventyfive percent of
all the garbage dumped into American landfills. Seventyfive percent! How much cleaner
would the world be, how many forests would thrive, how much energy could be saved if you
led your community in a recycling effort?
It's true that selling stacks of newspapers you've accumulated during the past couple
of months or so won't make you rich. In fact, it's doubtful your own accumulation of paper
will add up to a ton a year, and that certainly won't amount to much in extra income. But
think about the tonnage involved in the stacks of old newspapers, cardboard boxes, and
bond paper you could collect from your relatives, friends, and neighbors. You could easily
collect several 100pound sacks of old newspapers from your immediate neighbors each
week and that's just your own block. And then think about the total extra income you
would have after you have hauled all this paper down to the recycling depot. If you're
serious and get yourself properly prepared, you can easily make $500 or more every
weekend, and it won't involve all your time. Some planning and effort on your part are the
prime requisites.
Start by clearing a space in your garage for storage. One side of a twocar garage
or any 8 by 12 foot space should be sufficient. If you have a garden shed that's dry, that
would work well also. Some paper collectors even rent space in a neighborhood
miniwarehouse and others store their collected paper on pallets in their backyards,
covering it with tarpaulins to keep it dry. The important thing is to have a space
available to store your collected paper until you're ready to haul it to the recycling
depot.
Being a firm believer in doing as little as possible of the physical work involved in
any business, I recommend you hire young people to do a lot of this for you. By that I
mean you should contact all the cub scouts, girl scouts, and civic organizations in your
area. Tell them you'll pay them money for the paper they collect and turn in to you. At
the same time, contact the PTA leaders at the schools, college fraternities and sororities
in your area and tell them you'll pay them for all the paper they collect. The idea is to
get everyone in your area collecting paper for you, eliminating the need to do the actual
collecting yourself. How much of the gross profit you allow or pay these people who do the
actual collection is up to you. The average rate is fifty percent of the total $25
per ton when you are getting $50 per ton.
In the beginning, you may have to "pound the pavement" yourself. However, you
would expect to do this in starting any business. Basically, there's nothing to this
except that it takes time you could be using to do other things. However, there is nothing
more important than getting your new business off the ground. Make up a sign and tape it
to the side of your pickup or car. A simple sign such as Master Recyclers, 1234567,
is about all that's necessary. You could have two made up on magnetic mat at most quick
print shops for about $30. Have a college art student make one up for you on butcher
paper, or have a professional sign painter produce one for you on heavy card stock.
With this sign on the side of your pickup, car, or trailer, simply drive through the
residential neighborhoods of your area. Park in the middle of a block, get out and start
knocking on doors, asking the residents if they have old newspapers or cardboard boxes
they'd like for you to haul away for them. Generally, you'll get an armload of old
newspapers at every house. Simply carry them to your pickup or trailer, then go on to the
next house. If you'll set up a definite route to follow, certain streets on certain days
about once every two weeks, you'll find the homeowners will have stacks of paper waiting
for you. Regardless of whether the person answering the door gives you a stack of papers,
always leave a business card at each home.
Some paper recyclers offer to pay people to save newspapers for them, and to have them
ready for pickup when they make their collection rounds. Generally, this isn't necessary.
If you'll develop regular collection days for each street or neighborhood, you'll find the
people putting papers out for you just as they set out their garbage for collection. There
are even some paper recyclers who charge the people to haul their paper away. This isn't
advisable because once you start hauling rubbish you'll end up doing cleanup work,
and hauling more to the dump than you do to the recycling depot. Once you have your
collection routes organized, you can hire students to make your collection rounds after
school, and haul the paper to your storage center. You can set up crews of three one
to drive the truck or car while the others knock on doors on each side of the street.
Depending on how much paper each route gives you every two weeks, you could have a crew
working several routes each day for minimum wage, probably so much per truck or trailer
load, and expect to collect a couple of tons of paper for every three hours they work.
Again, by hiring other people to do the actual collection work for you, you'll not only
free yourself for other work, but you'll be making more money. Three people can do more in
less time than one person can.
The next step is to set up an areawide collection depot. This could be a
prefab building on a vacant lot, a vacant used car lot, or a closed service station.
In setting up an areawide or neighborhood collection depot, you will need space
some sort of shed to store or stack your papers in until you load them up and haul them to
the recycling center where you sell them. You'll need a scale to weigh them, and some sort
of office or desk space to manage your cash and books. You'll also need space enough for
your customers to drive in beside the scale, unload their papers, and get paid at the same
time. A vacant service station would be ideal. Your customers can pull in just as if they
were going to purchase gasoline. You could have your scales set up between the driveways
where the gas pumps are usually located, and store your accumulating loads in the service
area of the building. In most cities or counties, you'll need a business license or
permit. For more details, contact your county clerk's office.
Once you've established a location, you'll need a couple of signs, one on each side of
your driveway. These will announce the fact that you buy old newspapers, cardboard boxes,
and bond paper. The signs need not be anything fancy, just simple attentiongetting
announcements that you're open for business and paying money for paper. Generally, the
going rate for newspapers dropped off at a central collection depot is 1 cent per pound,
and the papers need not be bundled. This will give the sellers $20 a ton for dropping them
off, and at $50 a ton that will work out to $30 profit for you. (Again, these rates
fluctuate, so be sure you are absolutely current by checking out the going price in your
area.)
In addition to old newspapers, you should organize your time and schedule to call upon
all the businesses, stores, and warehouses in your area. Talk to the business owners and
store managers and ask them if you can haul away their old cardboard boxes. If there's
competition in your area, you might end up having to pay for these boxes, provided they're
clean. The thing to do is to call upon everybody who uses paper products or cardboard
boxes. Grocery stores are an excellent source of cardboard. Remember, the more people you
have giving you paper, the more money you are going to make. Many already established
recycling services do not bother with the smaller stores and warehouses, but these add up
quickly if you are diligent in finding a number of them.
Check close by in your surrounding area, and find out if the businesses are satisfied
with their present recycling pickup service. Ask first if you can haul away their old
boxes free of charge. Many of the smaller stores will give them to you because it
decreases the load for their rubbish service to haul away. Where necessary, offer to pay 1
to 2 cent per pound if they'll save them for you. It is important to get everyone
providing paper for you. The more people out there collecting paper products and having
them ready for you to pick up when you drop by on your designated collection day, the
greater your potential profit. Beyond that, you will start making really big money when
you can park your truck in one place and fill it up from a group of closely located stores
or businesses. With this is mind, you could conceivably drive through four blocks, making
one stop in the middle of each block, and have a ton or more of paper or cardboard boxes
every fourth block.
The most lucrative source of income in recycling comes through the collection of bond
paper. Bond paper is the kind used in photocopying machines and by computer printers. Many
companies, especially large office complexes or industries, insurance companies, and banks
use huge amounts of bond paper that are discarded everyday. Printers and copy shops are
another source of large quantities of bond paper. Visit with the physical plant director
or vice president of large companies in your area. If they are not already recycling,
offer to haul their bond paper away free of charge. If they balk, offer $20 per ton. With
prices near $100 per ton for bond, you'll reap a handsome profit even if you have to pay.
Try convincing large companies that by setting a cardboard box with a
"SaveaTree" label on each side in every department or office,
employees can start recycling their paper (letters, envelopes, outdated reports and files)
rather than throwing it away. The company can use the program as a public relations tool
to highlight their concern for the environment. When you visit these offices, take along a
couple of "SaveaTree" boxes as examples. You can usually get the
"SaveaTree" boxes at your recycling depot. When full, each box will
contain 35 to 45 pounds of paper. Otherwise, make up your own boxes. Most offices will
fill one of these boxes in a week or two, depending upon their volume of paperwork.
It will pay you to contract for a quarter page ad, or the largest ad available that you
can afford, in the yellow pages of your area telephone directories. Whether or not you
advertise the prices you pay in the ad is entirely up to you, but generally it's not a
good idea because you would be stuck with those rates for over a year. You might word your
ad to explain that you pay one rate per pound when paper is brought to you, and another
rate when you pick up and haul away. You should also run a regular classified ad, perhaps
even one with more words in the Contract Jobs section of your daily paper. Your best
advertising days will be Thursday through Saturday, the days when people are specifically
thinking about cleaning up around the house or offices. These are also the days when
people think about what they can do to earn extra money.
Paper recycling is the kind of business that snowballs with visibility and
wordofmouth advertising. It will definitely benefit you to join the various
civic and service clubs in your area, attend their luncheons, and mingle with the business
leaders in your area. Volunteer to assist in some fundraising events, and whenever
possible, become a guest speaker and tell about your business.
It isn't hard to stand up before a group of people and talk about your business,
particularly if you know what you're talking about and believe in what you're saying. It
does take at least an outline of a script, perhaps a few notes, a rehearsal, and the
essential ingredient of enthusiasm. Make your talk interesting and informative. Do some
research and present statistics on how much paper the people of this country use each
year. Explain the limited supply of timber and the need to recycle as much as possible.
Detail how these facts and figures opened your eyes and caused you to do something about
it to open your own recycling center. Then, lead your talk into explaining how the
recycling business is an avenue for everyone to benefit: the ideal fundraising
endeavor; economically beneficial; and a chance to preserve forest lands and the extra
energy needed to produce paper from raw timber. Getting free publicity for a recycling
center can be easy. In addition to serving as guest speaker before civic and service
groups in your area, you may find radio and television stations and newspapers, even
weekly shopping guides, anxious to give you time or space.
By all means, try to get a story into the media detailing your grand opening, and try
to schedule a followup with appearances on talk shows and press releases about the
different organizations raising money by collecting newspapers and turning them in to you.
Set up a contest among the different organizations, with prizes for the teams or
organizations collecting the most paper. Hold special "Seniors" or
"Children's Days" when you pay extra for all paper turned in by persons of a
certain age. Keep an eye out for angles such as the largest amounts turned in, and stories
about your regular collectors who keep turning in paper regularly until they attain money
goals. Emphasize in your publicity contacts that recycling is a kind of community service
that benefits all citizens. You're cleaning the environment, conserving timber, water, and
energy, and putting money into the pockets of all who participate. Carefully consider
every angle, and submit press releases to the media, calling them and inviting them to
cover human interest stories emanating from your business. You'll be surprised at the
response.
