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Ideas/Section-7
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 are piled 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 weekend, 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 mount to much of an 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 paper lose 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 bring 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 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 and 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 visit your neighbors. Tell them you are collecting and
hauling away all the old newspapers and boxes in the
neighborhood each week. You might offer them $5 a month if
they' have everything ready for you when you make your
weekend collection round.
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 street, 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 the time gloating over the easy money
they've just made. One load won't make you rich or even 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
route, at
least once every two weeks. Once you've got 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 ad 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 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 perhaps a vacant , or even a
corner of a large shopping center parking ara. 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 and two cents a pound for
cardboard boxes. You an hire someone to man this center for you
during the day, or perhaps only open between 4 and 6 o'clock in
the afternoons. Advertise your hours, and be dependable, so that
people can count on you.
Even though you have a collection depot,
you'll still want to
continue your weekend 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 whenever 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 to you. Run some promotions; work for
free publicity;and be conspicuous. Don't be embarrassed; everyone
is aware of te need for recycling everting that can be recycled.
And you'll be admired as someone with the ambition to make it
happen, picking up a good second income while you're doing it.
The complete business start-up manual HOW
TO START YOUR OWN
PAPER RECYCLING SERVICE, can be obtained from the distributor
who supplied this report. Ask for Manual #3316
