AN EASY SOURCE OF EXTRA INCOME FOR ANYONE
One of the easiest (and best) ways of making extra money is by collecting old
newspapers and selling them to a "recycling plant" in your area.
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 one of your kids asks if he can haul
them off for the school or cub scout paper drive. Or maybe your wife and kids
get ambitious some week end, clean out the garage and haul all those newspapers
off to the collection truck at the local
shopping center.
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 really amount to much extra
income. But think about the stacks of old newspapers you would have if you were
to collect and haul away for the people in your neighborhood - say a ten-pound
stack of newspapers from each house on your street every Saturday. The picture
changes, doesn't it?
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 - ordinary cardboard boxes that have been flattened - is
bringing 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 would be sufficient. If you have a garden
shed that is dry, that would work well also. Some collectors even rent space in
a neighborhood mini-warehouse.
Next, you should place an ad in your community newspaper or the weekly shopping
news, something like this: Junk, old newspapers and cardboard boxes hauled away.
Phone 123-4567. Then you visit your neighbors. Tell them you are collecting and
hauling away all the old newspapers and boxes in he neighborhood each week. You
might even offer them $5 a month if they'll have everything ready for you when
you make your weekend collection rounds.
On Saturdays, starting at about 9:00 a.m., rent an open trailer and hitch it to
your car. If you have a pick-up truck, so much the better. With your wife and
kids, a couple of neighbor boys, or perhaps a couple of teenage "huskies" you've
hired through your local high school, start making your rounds. You drive the
car with the trailer. Your helpers, one on each side of the side, 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 sign on each side of your
trailer, and on each side of the car as well. It might read: Paper Collection
Service.
Visit the people you've talked to on your block first. That will give you some
paper in the trailer and from there, you just expand. Go to the next block and
the next, driving up and down the streets, visiting, 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, though, that you
get right back to the job of knocking on doors and collecting more newspapers
and cardboard.
Some people will (foolishly) 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 or even really pay for your time. Get right back on the job and collect as
many loads as the daylight hours will allow.
Make the same rounds; follow the same collection routes, at least once every two
weeks. Once you've hot the routine working well, 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. And
then too, once you have it all together, you'll want to go with a truck or
trailer that allows you to haul a couple of tons of paper per load.
It's important that you make regular rounds, calling on the same houses
regularly. After about six months of this, 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 advertising in the
newspapers, and the sign 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. Specifically, these are the reasons you'll need storage
space to store the paper in your garage or other storage area 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 perhaps a vacant lot, or even a corner of a large
shopping center parking area. You'll need a scale (you can rent or lease one of
these for a small amount), and a quick set-up tent or large truck. What you want
to do is establish a location where people can come to you. They bring their
newspapers, you weigh what they've
brought and pay them a penny a pound for newspapers and two cents 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 after-noons. Advertise your
hours, and be dependable, so that people can count on you.
To establish your location, you'll have to check with the owner or management,
and agree not to interfere with their regular mode of business. If you do go to
a shopping center parking lot, 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. The important thing always is to establish yourself in the best
possible location for the least amount of money from your pocket.
Even though you have a collection depot, you'll still want to continue your week
end collection rounds. But with a collection depot, you can hire other people to
do the driving, knock on doors, make the collections and transfer their loads
into the depot facility. If it's a big truck or trailer, you'll be selling ten
to fifteen tons of paper when ever you make your trips to the recycling plant.
Another important thing you should think about doing is getting the whole
community involved with you. Get them to thinking about recycling paper and
selling it to you. Run some promotions; work for free publicity; and be
conspicuous. Don't be embarrassed; everyone is aware of the need for recycling
everything that can be recycled. And you'll be admired as someone with the
ambition to make it happen.