Can You Make Decent Money Collecting Soda Cans?

Spent a bunch of time and totally loaded up my pickup truck with cans. Got about $7 for it and probably wasted more gas than the $7.

That right there is the REAL bum marketing!

It could work, but it depends how many cans you have access to.

You might be able to make much more money doing something else with
your time, as that may be quite time consuming...

MATHEMATICS:

At $0.05 cents per can, you would need 20,000 cans for every $1,000 you want to make.
If you got $0.10 cents/can -- You'd need 10,000 cans per $1,000 and so on... Seems tough, especially considering a wedding costs at least $5,000 - $10,000+ (More like $20k).

I'd suggest spending your time doing niche sites and selling them off when they are profitable ...

have a backyard wedding...

Hello,
if the cans are in a recycling bin they may be the property of that city, so be careful on that one.
When I was a little kid I used to collect bottles for just 2 cents and cans did not count back then.

hmmm... ya that is a waste of time. Just go to the court house

THIS works...I know, I have done it for an organization.

1. Develop a route for picking up garbage
2. Speak to some local businesses in and around those routes and ask if they will sponsor your activities
3. Get business to furnish some simple signs AND a shirt with their info (Honk if you love Clean Streets)
4. issue a simple press release to local paper about the efforts
5. Hit the streets, cleaning them up, giving promo and press to your sponsor, collect the money. You can easily lock in $250+ for a business that wants a FEEL GOOD boost plus some direct advertising

The cans? A means to an end...the MARKETING is what pays the bills...

Mac the Knife (now, most will NEVER do this...that is why so much OPPORTUNITY exists in the world...most never take advantage of it...)

sounds you got sometime to waste. Cans wouldn't make you any money they paying per pound. I would say working online click ads may pay you better

Honestly there are much better means to making money, even via offline.

You aren't gonna get rich collecting cans, that's for sure.

Spend the time that you would collecting cans providing a service online, there's gotta be something that you can market on Fiverr which will make you more money than collecting cans.

Take the time that you saved that you would've spent collecting cans and put it into learning something of value online or creating a valuable asset that you can flip. You won't learn much collecting cans, but you can learn anything you want on the internet.

I collect cans that are tossed where I go rock hunting. When I lived in Idaho cans were only 15 cents per pound. Over the summer I collected them from sites I was at and saved them to see what I could get. I got 30 bucks. Mind you I never went looking for them, just picked up what was laying in my path. Would have collected the plastic too if there had been a price on it, although sometimes I did pick up other trash just for GPs to clean a nice site up if I had a place to take the trash and bags to collect it.

In New York I collected cans around a 4 mile or so block I walked Munchie around. There was a 5 cent deposit on them. Plastic and glass ones, too. I got a tank of gas out of it. Gas was cheaper, though, then. I can't remember the price but it was a little over 2 bucks a gallon.

I just moved to NV and will probably pick them up at rock hunting sites here, too. To me its just right to clean them up if you walk by them - and if it can make you a few bucks to do that, you earned it for caring about pollution and people turning the whole earth into their trashcan. You won't support yourself doing that so it may not be worth doing for real cash, but everyone should just do it anyhow. Even if the cans and bottles just go in a trashcan when they get to one.

Short answer: No

Long answer: Hell No! Doing almost anything else that makes money would be more productive.

The cans are worth more if they're full of soda pop.

Depending on the season and location, there are a lot of people heading towards the beach/parks. Not sure how to set it up, but on the lines of #8 just set yourself in that type of area and pay kids the 50% of the deposit.

Except for still having to take the cans to recycling, this becomes professional bum marketing in that others come to you . Cheaper on gas too.

Marvin

I went to the University of Nebraska for college. Every other saturday in the fall is huge, hundred thousand people are tail gating. Several times I went down to the stadium and picked up cans as the game was going on. The most I ever made was $414. The worst I ever did was $140.

A lot of my friends made fun of me, and I certainly hope I never have to do something like that again, but I was also broke and had gotten my girlfriend pregnant when I was in 11th grade and so was trying to pay my way through college and take care of a family.

Today marked the end of my fiscal year for 2011 and I crossed the $1million sales mark in my business for the first time. Next year my daughter will be going off to college and not have to worry about money and all of the things I had on my plate, but the point is you do what you gotta do when you gotta do it.

I have a lot more respect for someone who comes up with a practical solution and does it as opposed to someone who just wastes time on bull**** and dreams, that's for sure.

Interesting topic and plenty of people saying HELL NO. Collecting cans isn't going to make you any money.

Well whether it paid for gas, or not, the guy above still made $7. I have students that have mentioned to me, and there's been plenty of post on WF, about them doing IM for 6 months now and haven't made ANYTHING!!!

Lets see, $7 from one trip of cans or 6 months with absolutely NOTHING?

heres what you do, collect as many can as you can for a month. say you make $500.

then use that money to create and market a product that teaches people how o make $500 a month collecting cans. Jackpot.

Work smarter, not harder.

This sounds like a lot of work for a very low return.

My first reaction to your story is perhaps you need to step back and take a longer look at your situation. In others words (without getting too personal), once you've paid for the wedding, then you're going to have 2 mouths to feed--unless your partner works too, and you combine your incomes.

If you're thinking of collecting cans to supplement your income, I would assume that your skill level is either limited, or you are not an idea person.

I say this with all due respect, but there's got to be a more profitable venture for you to achieve your goal.

I think you would make more money by approaching a relative in business and offering your services, or looking for a part time job that would suit you. If you were planning on collecting cans, you must have a lot of extra time on your hands, so if you were to put that time into something more financially viable, it would make more sense to have a better proposal than what you are contemplating.

Have you looked at Fiverr for a gig that might suit you?

Alternatively, if you were to approach your community leaders and explain your position to them, they too may be able to slot you into something that pays better and take less time.

These are just a few thoughts, and I'm sure you can compile the comments within this thread to secure a solid path forward.

I wish you well.

Haha. In Southern Australia you can 10cents per bottle or can you deposite, if you can get 10000s of them could make up a nice profit.

Yes it can but...instead of spending time and effort gathering cans, just sit in front of your computer and put that effort and "motivation" to IM...

LOL, this tell me this thread really doesn't exist on the Warrior Forum...

Man, I applaud your resolve and work ethic, but there are better ways. But if you're stuck on collecting scrap aluminum and selling it to the recyclers, go after all the transmission repair shops/auto repair shops in your area and collect their scrap/old transmission cases. They're all aluminum, and heavy....lol

I really appreciate all of the replies. After calculating, I decided to stcick to IM. I fugured I would need 2-3 hours to collect 200 cans. In that time I could write 1 good artice. If that articles makes 1 sales over its life time, I will triple my return on investment.

I am allready making about 500 a month with IM, but I am a little burned out with the process. Last thing I want to do after a full day staring at the screen at work is to go home, and spand the rest of my night still starring at the screen, walking around collecting cans sounded like fun comparing to that. But I have to be rational and follow the money, or find something else physical and more profitable to do for extra income.

Wow I think you better spend you money making a blog or something like that. Less work and more money

Just imagine how much time it will take you to collect the cans and the amount of money that you're going to make from it. Sorry to say this but it's not going to worth it.

There are better ways to start making decent amount of income. If you want to spend time outside, you might as well offer web design service to local business owners in your area. You don't even have to build the sites yourself if you don't have the skill. Collect some deposit and outsource it to someone else.

If you can get $500 for a website and make a $200 profit from it, you'll need to build 50 websites to make $10k. Sounds a lot better right?

1. Shop around for the recycling center giving the best return. My son fills up the back hatch of his little Eclipse and he gets over $40.

2. Elope to Vegas. It's cheaper. And you won't feel so bad if the marriage fails in the first 5 years.

I got married in the cord house... cost me $25 for the marriage license.. you could make that in one full day of canning.

An old man in the town that my wife grew up in, sells ice cream out of the back of an old station wagon (lol, no joke).

This guy paid for both of his kids to go to college, from selling ice cream after he got of work at his 9-5 job. The kids are both grown now, & this guy still sells ice cream. Must pay the bills...

We only have 1 state that takes money for cans and you only get 5c/can. It would take me over 15 hours to drive to this state and with petrol now at $1.50 / ltr , think i would lose out big time.

This reminds me of a Seinfeld episode.

IM or Scrap Metal?

Here's a mixture of the two: Scrap Metal Prices and Scrap Metal Auctions

Yes, of course. There is money in it, as they say, a person's thrash, might be a treasure for others. Although it's not that much, but still gives you some earnings. I would also like the suggestion that you have to contact local business that sells or has soda cans in their establishment that you will be collecting those cans, instead of throwing it all in the garbage. You can inquire from them if you can set up your own bag for empty soda cans in their premises or establishments, that you will take your bags in a weekly or daily basis, whichever time you are available to do it.
And also, try to gather as much empty soda cans before you take them all to the junk shop or any store that buys empty soda cans. You might spend more money in your gas than what you will earn if you will take those soda cans in a weekly basis. But if the store is just two or three blocks away, you might want to borrow some cart for your soda cans, in that way, you will definitely saves money for gas and will definitely earn some money from cans.
It is also a way of helping our environment and save our planet from pollution and from non-biodegradable materials.

Thanks for the question and well done thinking outside the box.

As others have said cans only bring in small amounts of money, why not expand a bit, - ink cartridges, cellphones, printers and computers all these are recycled and fetch large amounts of money.

Here In the Uk you can recycle an old iPhone 3 and get around £100

Well done and best wishes for your wedding.

You'll need the cans to tie to your car for after the wedding!!!

The time spent going all over the place picking up cans would be much better spent in just getting a job where at least you are making money. I don't think collecting soda cans would be that profitable....

You might want to start dropping hints to your child about eloping.

The demand is there, if you can find a reasonable supply, might make sense. The idea mentioned regarding working as middleman may be worth pursuing. There are so many new value items that may offer much better return other than cans, for example PC boards, Cell Phones/Laptops/Notebooks, with either a component , or reusable sub assembly part (s), that may be much easier to find a supply, and move them for a quick return....
I would recommend looking a bit broader than cans, think you will find a true niche , everyone already recognizes cans.. I can say this though, the most successful people I have ever met, are in either in Recycle, or the Restaurant biz....
-Hope that helps

Yes you can make money like that but you really have to collect lots of cans to see some real money. I will take that time and effort to do affiliate marketing or Sell a gig on fiverr you wil make more monay like that

We had a pile of pop cans in our barn left over from some Scouts Canada thing my husband was involved in. We stuffed them in his van and took them to the recycle place and got just about $100. for them! Aluminum must be up in price! So it was worth it, plus they are now out of the barn.

All you Warriors disappoint me. I just joined today, and my first thought upon reading this post was "how fast before some tries to sell this guy an e-book on can recycling?"

Not one of you did. For shame. Now hold on OP while I write an e-book on "Secrets to Massive Can Recycling Profits Revealed!"

You'd be better off having a 'waste collection' service, and include the recyclables in it. I know of a guy locally that 'defurbishes' offices - he just takes all of the furniture OUT, and charges for it. Then he just pawns it on eBay anyway.

I had a friend who collected cans every Thursday night at the center of town. There's a 75 cent deposit (equivalent in USD) on large glass bottles where he lived. He made about 100 dollars a week or so doing it. The only problem is that it's a little embarrassing. He was 18 so everyone knew he wasn't homeless but he still had to explain to a number of people what he was doing. Eventually people got to know him and helped him collect bottles. Do the math though, 100 dollars for 3 hours = 33.3 dollars an hour. Not passive income, no room to expand but it's good money for a completely unskilled job.

I know a guy who owns a bar and has about a half a dumpster a day of glass bottles. If you talked to bar owners to pick up for them you could get the glass in bulk and take it to a recycling center.

I also know a guy who says he makes 150-200 a day collecting scrap metal. He goes around to different cities on trash day and gets all the metal out of the out of the trash piles in front of people's houses.

Hope that helps you a little.

I know an old timer who lives off of selling soda cans. He rides his bike to collect them (I've never seen him drive) and people in the community leave them out for him.

It's like an unspoken agreement we all have to give him our recyclables. He's on his bike all day, going from house to house getting cans. Even some stores leave them out for him.

And come to think about it, I don't he's ever had a regular 9 to 5. He will take whatever you are throwing away and get some use out of it.

Definitely, there is money from thrash. But I would suggest, aside from soda cans, you might just want to include some aluminium, they are heavier and costs much than soda cans, lol.
Anyway, you just have to try to collect sacks of soda cans since if you try to bring those cans per week, you are wasting some gas and in reality, you spend more on gas than the income you earn from selling soda cans. One great suggestion is that you can asked someone in your town or area, who owns a business like a bar or food shoppe, to put some sack in his/her establishment and you would collect it per weekly basis.
In that, you can collect more sodas in a weekly basis and will not be spending more on your gas than what you earn from your cans. Or you can posts some page, so that people in your neighbourhood will know where to throw or deliver their soda cans.
Saving the environment at the same time earning some money, continue in what you are doing.