Guest post by Stewart McGrenary

What’s better than making money and saving the planet at the same time? Today, we will look at how you can earn money by recycling everyday unused items. These could include things you no longer need or haven’t used for quite some time now.

Think about the stuff that’s collecting dust in your storeroom or the basement. Do you think you’ll ever use these items, or will they end up in landfills? Recycling is beneficial. It’s good for the planet, for the environment, and it can help align our moral compass. However, most people overlook the most critical advantage — making money through recycling.

Many recycling programs allow people to bring in their “trash” and get paid in cash. You can help the planet and the people around you while making profits. The economic benefits of recycling are also worth discussing. Recycling leads to job creation, innovative products, and cost-saving.

These are just some of the economic benefits that come when people start taking recycling seriously. Now let's talk about how you can earn money by recycling unused items around you.

Getting Started: What to Consider

You might be thinking that it’s a very different way of making money. It may sound unconventional unless you’re a huge fan of recycling. Once you realize how easy it is to make good money by recycling unused items, you'll get the picture. It is straightforward because you will already have most of the things needed to get started.

You can earn pocket money or larger amounts of cash by recycling. In addition to the financial benefits, getting rid of your unused recycling items will give you a sense of satisfaction and happiness. You will be preventing things from ending up in landfills and promoting a more sustainable and eco-friendly lifestyle.

You could even start recycling as a side hustle, especially if you think you have enough recyclable materials like plastic bottles, electronics, clothes, and other things. You could organize garage sales in your neighborhood or sell them online.

If you’re serious about making money through recycling, we recommend you designate a separate workspace. Once you’ve set up your workstation, you can research on the internet what items are recyclable for money or other valuable rewards. You can then prepare things that you don’t need or use and recycle them in any way that suits you best.

How to Make Money Recycling?

The next step is getting paid to recycle. How and what you can reclaim depends on the items that you’re looking to recycle. However, we will talk about some of the most common things people have lying around in their houses. We will also briefly discuss the different ways of recycling through which you can earn valuable rewards.

Turn Your Old Books into Cash

You might have some books lying around your house that you no longer read or need. These could include dictionaries and textbooks that are collecting dust on your bookshelf. You can recycle them to earn some extra cash.

There are several ways of recycling old books that you no longer use. For instance, you could sell them online from the comfort of your home on websites like DeCluttr, which facilitate book-selling. All you will need to do is type in the barcode of the book you’re looking to recycle. DeCluttr will give you an instant price, and then you can pack the books and ship them off.

Moreover, Amazon Trade-In also lets you sell books quickly. You will have to enter the book’s ISBN to find out how much you can earn by recycling it. Other than that, you could also take books and textbooks to a nearby recycling center.

Make Money Recycling Bottles, Cans, and Ink Cartridges

We’re hoping that you don’t like seeing empty cans and bottles lying around. It’s a sad sight, and you should get rid of it all. The best way to do that is to cash them in! Cashing in the cans and bottles that accumulate in your household can help you make a good amount of money.

While most states will pay you for returning used cans and bottles, the offered rate may differ. Some states provide only 5 cents for empty bottles and cans. Other states offer as much as 10 cents. You could also take these bottles and cans to a local recycling center to find out how much you can make through them.

Moreover, many beverage companies have started projects where they are working together to promote recycling efforts. The good news is that they offer cash rewards to consumers that bring back bottles and cans they no longer need.

If you have a business or used ink a lot for some other reason, you might have empty ink cartridges. It might be surprising, but you can make a good amount of money if you recycle by selling them online on websites like eBay or Craigslist. Office supply stores around the country offer cash rewards and store credit in exchange. You could buy more ink with that too.

Recycling Plastic and Metals

When it comes to recycling, plastic and metal are two of the most sought-after materials worldwide. Since these materials do not degrade quickly, they are reusable several times. If you’re looking to clean up a little, you can make some money and help the environment while you’re at it.

Plastics and metals exist in so many forms, so what sort of stuff can you recycle? It could include copper wires, aluminum from home appliances, brass, and stainless steel from kitchen accessories and cookware. We have already discussed above how you can recycle plastic bottles that you no longer need.

In addition to that, almost every adult will have plastic cards in their wallet. These cards are essential as they can be membership cards, debit cards, or other vital documents. However, they are typically thrown away once they expire, and they end up in landfills. These recyclable cards take about 400 years to decompose in landfills.

Plastics and metals can cause a lot of damage to the environment. So, responsibly gather your plastic and metal to take it all to the nearest recycling center or scrapyard to make a little cash in no time.

Clothing Equals Cash

The Environmental Protection Agency in 2018 concluded that more than 10 million tons of textiles ended up in landfills that year. If you’ve got a shirt that's too big or a pair of too-tight skinny jeans that you have never used or you never will wear again, you could trade them in for monetary rewards.

For instance, Cotton’s Blue Jeans ‘Go Green program’ will accept old denim of any condition or brand, which means you could even take your old, worn-out, and used pair of jeans. The program uses the collected materials to make housing insulation for communities around the world in countries in need. This way of recycling jeans is both rewarding and innovative.

Moreover, you can sell clothes online to make money on websites such as thredUP and Poshmark. Other than that, you could post ads on social media platforms if you think you have clothes that people would like to get their hands on.

Sell Your Electronics

If you have electronics and tech gadgets lying around your house, you should know that you can recycle them and earn cash rewards. With time, these electronics and tech gadgets can lose their value and stop working correctly. It is better to make some money, which you could later spend on a new device that you will use.

Many electronics and tech gadgets end up in landfills every year. So to make the situation better, many electronics superstores are offering store credit, cash rewards, and gift cards in exchange for old and unused electronics. One such example is the Tech Trade-Up program started by Office Depot, where they pay you in Office Depot gift cards in exchange for tech products and gadgets.

Moreover, selling your mobile can be made even easier with websites like Freedom Mobiles, where you can compare the prices offered by different recyclers for your iPhone.

Easy Money

We discussed how to earn monetary rewards by recycling the most common household items.

It is important to note, however, that anything with value can be recycled, even the things that we think are not so valuable. For instance, if you have accumulated a pile of wine corks over the years, you can turn them into cash.

While recycling won’t make you a millionaire, it’s better than just forgetting these things or throwing them away. It is easy money, and once you realize that, you will always be looking at something you don’t need or use and thinking about how you can turn it into cash.

With so many websites, social media platforms, and recycling programs, it has never been this easy to make extra money by recycling and preventing environmental pollution.

Stewart McGrenary is the Managing Director at Freedom Mobiles - a comparison site of leading online mobile recyclers that helps customers get the best deal for their iPhones, iPads or other products

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