Recycling for profits

Our society is wasteful. Plain and simple. We waste. A lot. And I make money as a result of it. As metals become more and more valuable, recycling becomes a more and more profitable venture to be in. People throw away items every day that can be recycled or resold for a profit. Sunday evenings become my Christmas every week.

On Sunday evenings, the fine people of my hometown set out their garbage. And that's when I make my money. Every Sunday evening, I walk around and see what I can find sitting out on the side of the road. Most Sundays, I can find $10-20 dollars worth of scrap metals that have simply been tossed out with the garbage. Broken appliances, aluminum windows, basically anything metal has a value.

After you've accumulated a nice little pile of scrap metals, you'll want to get paid for them. Research in the Yellow Pages or on the internet, and locate a nearby scrap metal recycling facility. Call ahead to find out if they have any minimum weight requirements, or if they pay extra if you bring them in a large volume of material. Some yards will pay extra if you bring in more materials at once.

Sort your materials out into like types (aluminum, copper, brass, steel, etc), otherwise the recycling center will pay you for the whole batch based on the lowest valued material that you bring in. If you have any questions, ask the workers at the recycling facility how something should be classified. Also, feel free to go to the local recycling facility and ask if you can see examples of each type of material.

You would be surprised what you'll find out walking around. Sometimes you get super lucky. I was once given a broken down Chevrolet Cavalier simply by being in the right place at the right time. $100 worth of parts later, and I was able to fix the car and sell it for a nice profit.

On top of the financial gains, I like to stress the "walking" part. It's great to get out and stretch the legs rather than riding around in a vehicle, or worse yet, sitting at home and doing nothing.