Recycling for Money: Is Recycling Aluminum Cans Worth It?

It’s that time of year again where spring is in the air and that taking a walk outside is a must-do. When taking a walk, you will typically find cans outside along your route. You know every can you pass, means you are passing up money.

Here’s everything you need to know about making money selling cans.

What Do You Need to Get Started Selling Aluminum Cans for Cash Near Me?

To get started collecting cans for cash, all you really need is the following:

• Trash Bags
• Inexpensive recycle bins
• Safe place to store them

See? It’s not much. If you have things to hold them in and a place to store them, you are on your way to making some cash on the side during your walks.

How to Turn Your Aluminum Cans into Cash?

Now, that you got your recycling cans, trash bags, and spot set up in your home, it’s time to start turning these aluminum cans into cold hard cash.

This is a simple, yet easy process. You will need to follow these guidelines below to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Find Your Recycling Center

This may be obvious, but you may not think about this until AFTER you do the rest of the work.

Before you start anything, you will want to locate your local recycling center. This is a vital step to see if/when it will be worth making the trip down there.

Not only that, but you will be able to see what they pay for aluminum cans as well. There is no sense in going down there too soon, if the profit is not there.

To locate your local recycling center, you will want to scour recyclingcenters.org and earth911.com.

Find Where You Can Locate Cans Easily

Just like the header says, you will want to find places where you can easily locate cans. Of course, going on your walks can help, but it won’t gather a LARGE quantity like you will need to take them to the recycling center.

You will want to scour places like schools, stadiums, and the like. These places will have LARGE quantities of cans that will make it worth your time to see if you can have permission to collect the cans out of their recycling bins.

Have a Safe Place to Store Your Cans?

Just like I mentioned above, you will need to have a safe place to store them. This can either be in trash bags, recycling bins, or any other containers. We highly recommend you store them in your garage or outside, so you do not get bugs inside your home. You will want to try and have BIG containers, so that they can hold more cans than smaller ones, which in return will allow you to make more money.

Take Cans to Recycling Center

When you get enough cans to warrant a trip to your local recycling center, you will want to take them down there.

Of course, if you have a decent amount of extra space, you can save them up until you have a good chunk of money as well. It doesn’t hurt, this part is all up to what you see if best for you.

Read More: Cardboard Boxes Recycling for Money Worth It? 13 Websites Included

How Much Money Do You Get for Recycling Aluminum Cans?

Before we can really tell how much money you will get recycling aluminum cans, you will need to know a few vital things.

For instance, it wasn’t too long ago that people recycling cans could make a great side income. However, now that technology is advancing the cans are not as thick as they once were, this now makes them way less profitable.

But this doesn’t always mean it is not worth doing either. Of course, if you are a teen without bills, this could be a very good side gig, but if you are an adult, this may not be the best thing to do either.

What you are going to need to ask yourself is can I get a large quantity to make this worth my time and my energy. For instance, if you live in Montana, you can make $0.30 per pound, but if you live in states that have a set rate like $0.10 per can, then it is worth it.

The Verdict

What we recommend is if you live in a state (yes, we are talking to you that live in Michigan and California) that you make $0.10 per can, it’s worth your time and effort especially if you can get your hands-on large quantities.

If you live in a state that they pay per pound, it may not be worth it after you factor in your time and gas getting to and from the recycling center.

This is not us saying that you shouldn’t recycle because you should, but you should look at the entire picture before deciding if this gig is worth it for you.