And if you know where to go, you can even recycle many of your household items for cash or rewards,. By diverting certain items from the waste stream and keeping them out of landfills, you can also earn extra money or help valuable causes. From scrap metal to ink cartridges, bottle caps and construction materials, you can recycle a wide variety of items in exchange for cash. We’ve also included information on how to recycle items for goodwill.
Be sure to properly pack items that may cause a bit of a mess. Even if you thoroughly rinse all your bottles and cans, there may still be water and other debris left in them, so be sure to transport them in baskets or bags to protect the interior of your car. Scrap metal is one of the most cost-effective materials to recycle. Copper, steel and aluminum are just some of the scrap you can recycle for money.
Google your local area and your “junkyard” to find a facility that takes any metal you have and knows your procedures for delivering them. Scrap metal prices were rising due to the pandemic that caused transportation problems. Some forecasters think that prices will begin to fall later this year. Now is a good time to get rid of that garbage.
California offers 5 cents for most plastic and glass bottles and aluminum cans under 24 ounces, and 10 cents for containers 24 ounces or larger. Technically it’s a bottle depot, but many people don’t bother to collect their refunds, so it’s easy to make money for bottle and can collectors. Eco-Cell is one of many companies that offer cash for old mobile phones and other electronic devices. The company accepts phones, tablets, rechargeable batteries, circuit boards and a variety of other electronic devices that work or are broken.
Even if an item is broken or submerged in water and cannot be used, Eco-Cell will accept it to divert electronic devices from landfills and properly dispose of their toxic components and metals. A number of charities also accept cell phones, either to reuse or to sell and use the funds for charity. Cell Phones for Soldiers renews and sells its old phone to active duty military and veterans. If a phone is too old or broken, Cell Phones for Soldiers sells it to recyclers, who strip it for parts and dispose of its metals responsibly.
Proceeds from sales go toward purchasing international calling cards for troops and providing emergency financial assistance to veterans. Organizations that work with victims of domestic abuse also accept used cell phones for their customers for emergency 911 calls. You can let your wine pay a little for itself. Sites like Etsy and Ebay and others show listings of used wine corks.
Selling on these sites is not difficult. When setting prices, keep in mind that sites charge small fees for both listing and selling items. Empty beer and soda cans, aerosol cans, aluminum foil, cake tins, and baking trays are items that build up quickly at home. And you can make quite a lot of money with them.
You can flatten them to take up a smaller space, put them together in a container, and sell them for cash once they weigh enough. Recycling aluminum is one of the most favorable methods, as it generates a lot of money on items that you would normally throw away in the trash. Unknown to many people, aluminum never decreases in value over time. You can take aluminum waste to processing plants, where it is melted and reused into new items.
Technology is constantly evolving, making some of your electronic devices obsolete. Instead of putting your old iPad Nano in a box, it’s better to recycle electronic waste that’s useless to you. Recycling centers and waste warehouses are two resources you can use if any of your items contain valuable materials such as copper, gold, platinum or aluminum. The best case scenario is that you earn a few dollars while getting rid of some unnecessary clutter, which is valuable in and of itself because you should never donate old electronics.
Learn what things you can recycle to reduce your impact on Earth’s resources and possibly also make some extra money. Kjellesvig said that a major source of pollutants in the country are plastic bags in which recyclables are placed. Kjellesvig explained that they cannot be left in the curbside bin or in a recycling center, but that they had to be taken to specific delivery points. NextStep Recycling also repairs broken computers and delivers them to underfunded schools, families in need, and nonprofit organizations.
Food waste can ruin an entire batch of paper if it is left to rest in the recycling facility and starts to break down. Callie Babbitt, an associate professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, said people often put plastic clam shells (used to package items such as blueberries and strawberries) in the recycling bin. One phenomenon experts say they have observed is the “wish cycle”, when consumers place items in a recycle bin in the hope that they will be recyclable. He added that most Best Buys will accept their old electronics, while Dell and Goodwill have a recycling partnership that allows consumers to drop off items at some Goodwill sites.
Still, you can make money by collecting bottles and cans, whether from work, friends and family, at events or simply with the recyclable materials you use at home. If it can be recycled (or otherwise disposed of with a zero-waste method), you can learn how to do it here. While those are the five household items you can recycle for a cash refund, many household items that collect dust can provide additional value. Be sure to remove labels and clean cans before putting them in the recycle bin to ensure that Austin-area recyclers can process them properly.
In the US, less than 20 percent of cell phones are recycled each year, and most people don’t know where to recycle them. Having separate containers for aluminum, plastic, metal, glass, electronics, paper waste and others will make it easier for you to bring a specific material to an appropriate recycling program.