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PAPER RECYCLING: AN EASY SOURCE OF EXTRA INCOME FOR ANYONEOne of the easiest ways of making extra money is by collecting old paper and selling it to a recycling plant in your area. Not only is this a job that can begin with minimal investment, but it is also a service to both your community and the earth. In these days of environmental consciousness, when everyone is doing their best to make the air, water, and land a cleaner place to live, you can make added income while doing your part to "Save the Earth." Just look around your own home - in the garage or the basement. What do you do with the old newspapers after you've read them? Most likely they just pile up in a corner of the garage or basement until you get ambitious some weekend, clean out the garage and set the papers on the curb for the garbage collector. While it is true that some folks recycle their old newspapers, over 75% of the waste dumped into America's landfills is newspaper. Tons of newspaper are being thrown out daily. Thousands of tons! And while it's true that selling stacks of newspapers you've accumulated during the past couple of months or so won't make you rich or even amount to much more than a few dollars at most, imagine the stacks of old newspapers you would have if you were to collect and haul away for the people in your neighborhood. The average daily newspaper weighs 12 ounces. Multiply those 12 ounces by a daily circulation of 100,000 and you've created almost forty tons of newsprint that more than likely will go into tomorrow's garbage. Forty tons! The picture changes, doesn't it? This is where you can increase your income. If you're serious and get yourself properly organized, you can easily make $300 or more every weekend. Right now, the going rate for old newspapers is about $50 a ton, depending upon your area. Most recycling depots prefer the papers loose rather than bundled or sacked. Check with the recycling plant you plan to sell to before delivery to them. Cardboard recycling - ordinary cardboard boxes that have been flattened - brings approximately $75 a ton. If you're going to collect old newspapers, you may just as well take cardboard too. Most people have old boxes around that are just taking up space, and some will even pay you to get rid of them. You start by clearing a space in your garage for storage. One side of a two-car garage,
or just an 8 by 12 foot space will be sufficient. A garden shed that is dry will work well
also. Some collectors even rent space in a neighborhood mini-warehouse. Place an ad like
the one below in your community newspaper or the weekly shopping news. Save the Earth. Old newspapers and cardboard boxes hauled away free. Call 123-4567. Next, visit your neighbors. Tell them you are collecting and hauling away all the old newspapers and boxes in the neighborhood each week. Ask them to have everything ready for you around nine in the morning when you make your weekend collection rounds. Suggest that they leave the items on their front porch or doorstep so you will not have to bother them when you arrive. On Saturdays beginning at about 9:00 a.m., borrow or rent an open trailer and hitch it to your car. If you have a pick-up truck, so much the better. With a couple of friends, family members, or a couple of neighbor boys, start making your rounds. You drive the car with the trailer. Your helpers, one on each side of the street, knock on each door and ask the residents if they have any old newspapers or cardboard boxes you can haul away for them. It would be advantageous for you to have a large magnetic sign on each side of your car or trailer reading: Paper Collection Service. Visit the people you've spoken to on your block first. That will give you some paper in the trailer and from there, you simply expand. Drive on to the next block and the next, going up and down the streets, stopping at all the homes, in an ever expanding ripple from your own street. When your trailer is full of old newspapers you can either take them directly to your recycling plant and sell the load, or take them to your storage area, unload them, and get everything organized. It's very important, however, that you get right back to the job of knocking on doors and collecting more newspapers and cardboard. Some people will collect a load, take it in for sale, and then waste time gloating over the easy money they've just made. One load won't make you rich. Get right back on the job and collect as many loads as the daylight hours will allow. Make the same rounds every two weeks, visiting the same houses as before. Once you've got the routine working well, people in the neighborhood will come to expect your service, and will purposefully set aside their recyclable paper and cardboard. Most people want to cut down on the wasteful habit of throwing out recyclable products. However, many will not go to the extra trouble of carrying the material across town to the nearest recycling plant. If you will come and pick up the material, they will willingly forgo any money they could collect by doing it themselves. Simply by setting a regular route you will have assured yourself of continued, and increasing, profits.As your service becomes established, you'll be ready to hire a couple of high school or college students to help, perhaps with another car and trailer. The best way to pay your help is with a percentage of the tonnage you sell. Also, once you're well-established, you'll want to get a truck or trailer that allows you to haul a couple of tons of paper per load, decreasing your travel time and thereby increasing profits. As your business increases, you'll be ready to open a local recycling depot. This simply means taking the accumulation of paper out of your home or garden shed and moving it to a business location. Because of your advertisements in the newspapers and the signs on your truck or trailer, people will be calling you during the week to come and pick up paper they have ready for you. Also, your neighbors will very likely be dropping by with armloads of paper for you from time to time as well. For this reason you'll need increased storage space for the paper in your garage or shed until you have enough to load up and take to the recycling plant. One of the best locations for your recycling depot is an abandoned or closed down service station or even a corner of a large shopping center parking area. Large paper bins will often be placed in the location of your choice by the recycling plant free or for a small charge. What you want to do is establish a location where people can come to you. Since folks will be bringing their papers to you, you will want to offer them some compensation. At $50 per ton, paper is bought from you at 2 1/2 cents per pound. Offer to pay one-half cent per pound for newsprint. Most folks will simply give you their papers, happy to help the environment by recycling, but happier still simply to be rid of them. Young people will see recycling as a means of making a little extra money, whatever the price you pay. You will save the gasoline and time involved in moving through the neighborhood to collect the papers. As people bring their newspapers, you weigh what they've brought and pay them a penny per two pounds for newspapers or one cent a pound for cardboard boxes. You can hire someone to man this center for you during the day or perhaps only open between 4 and 6 o'clock in the afternoons. Advertise your hours and be dependable so that people can count on you. If you do not rent a location and choose instead to seek a parking lot from which to operate, you'll have to check with the owner or management and agree not to interfere with their regular mode of business. Try to sell them on the idea that your recycling depot - clean and neat - will actually bring more people into the shopping center on a regular basis. It will be important to establish yourself in the best possible location for the least amount of money from your pocket. Check with the manager of the local supermarket. Tell him you will handle all the collection and transfer of the recyclable paper products if he would like to promote the recycling as a service of the store. He may choose to advertise the service as a draw for customers, promoting the store as one that cares for the environment. You get the added advertising and business simply by arranging to set your collection facility up in a corner of his parking lot, rent free! Even though you have a collection depot, you'll still want to continue your weekend collection rounds. With a collection depot, however, you can hire other people to do the driving, knocking on doors, and the collecting and transporting their loads to the depot facility. If it's a big truck or trailer that you're using, you'll be selling ten to fifteen tons of paper whenever you make your trips to the recycling plant. Consider involving the whole community in a recycling drive. Run some promotions and
look for all the free publicity you can find. Be conspicuous. Don't be embarrassed.
Everyone is aware of the need for recycling and the various products that can be recycled.
You'll be admired as someone with the ambition to make it happen, picking up a good second
income while you're doing it. Make the most of your business. It all depends on you. |
