This awesome tip comes from my reader Sam…
Ever wondered how to make a little extra cash? I gain extra money every month by saving aluminum cans. Not just soda cans but all my veggie and soup cans as well.
I have a separate trash can that I store my cans in. You should always crush your cans before you store them. The more cans you have the more money you will make. It only takes me a few minutes every day to crush cans and toss the in the garbage can. Once the can is full I bag them and put the bag in the garage.
Most households use a lot more aluminum than they realize. If you don’t use that much you can still save. I also have family members save their cans for me. We dont drink a lot of soda at my house but he does so rallying them together gets me a decent amount.
There are recycling centers all over the place. You can take them to recycling centers and scrap yards. You can usually find out what places around you take the cans. I found out by searching scrapyards and calling to see if they took cans. When they told me yes I asked how much per lb. You definitely want to make sure you know what you are getting per lb. If you know what you are getting per lb you will be able to guesstimate how much you will get off of your load.
We have a scrap yard just a few miles from my house that I take my cans. Last I checked the price for aluminum was 1.09 a lb. This is in Fl so it may vary by area but that is a decent price. I brought one can full in about a week ago and got $22.34. The littlest I have made was $30 the most being $200! On average I get about $40 if I go every other month. If I go early it will be less or if I wait I get more.
Just keep a bag in your garage for cans and even if you go only every 6 months you will get some extra money. I know I have absolutely no objections so having a bag in my garage if it could possibly give me $20+ dollars every six months! Everybody is different so what works for my household may not work for yours, but I challange you to try saving your cans. You will probably be surprised in how much you can put into your fund this way!
Be sure to check out all the ways to add to your fund!
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Haha I just reread this… I didnt proof read before I sent it.. The he I refer to is my dad.
We do this! We’re also in FL and only go 60 cents per pound two months ago, so I got $6.60 (not crushed cans) and $4.50 for an old table frame, and we added it to our vacation fund. Now that my son bikes to school (and I go with him) we collect cans along the way – so we’re making money and cleaning up the roadside between his school and our house. :o)
We recycle cans at our house too! Last time we took our cans in (after about 6 months) we got about $75.
I’m hoarding cans right now! I haven’t thought about soup cans though!
In our area(Ogden, Utah-Bloom Recyclers), the recycling center also pays for newspaper and PETE #1 recyclable plastic, so I keep a box for the newspaper and bags for the cans and plastics. They don’t pay as much for the plastic or the newspaper, but to us it is worthwhile to recycle and get the little bit of extra change. They also have a printable coupon online for a 3 cent/lb. bonus which is nice.
In Oregon we pay a deposit at the store, .05 per can and small bottle, .10 for large bottles. We tend to give ours to a local charity, but I’ve known of people that would scour the roadsides for “free” money. It helps keep Oregon clean. :)
Never thought about the veggie and soup cans–thanks!
Thanks i got the name bloom recyclers. I read onceagain thanks for the info
Ok, may be a dumb question but are veggie and soup cans made out of the same stuff as the aluminum coke cans? Can you put those in the same bags as your cans to be recycled?
Not a stupid question. Yes they are aluminum put them right in with your soda cans:) anything that comes in metal in your kitchen is aluminum usually. They do not package any food in steel. So sardine cans potted meat all that is recyclable
Soup cans are made of a tin/steel combination. They actually *do* need to be separated from aluminum at most recycling centers. You’ll want to check with your local recycling center to see if they can be combined or not.
Our recycling center where we recycle aluminum for cash requires that aluminum be separated from tin/steel. Aluminum pays much more than steel which is why they cannot be combined. Also, a batch of recyclables can be contaminated if other materials are included with them.
Wow! I have been saving cans for 3 years now and had never thought about the cans in my pantry. This will make a definitely make a difference in the amount I get. Thanks for the info! $1.09 per lb is awesome. Here in AR we only get about .40c per lb.
Here in Alabama , If we crush our cans they deduct from the per lb price:( Also we cant throw in soup , Veggie cans.. We only will be paid for soda cans… I wish Alabama would do more with scrap yards and recycling ..
Why do they deduct from the price per pound if the cans are crushed? The payouts are by weight, not by # of bags or something.
We have full curbside recycling for paper, plastic and metal here so we tend to pitch our aluminum in with that…but we do recycle scrap metal when we can. We recycled our dryer and oven(got about $5 for each) and recently my hubby dismantled an ancient piano so that we could take it to the dump ourselves instead of paying to have it hauled. He made about $20 on that, plus saved the cost of the pickup.
We give ours to the boy scouts here in town. They recycle and at the end of the year they make a donation to the lottie moon Christmas offering with the money from the cans. We don’t have the space to save that many cans ourselves. So, I guess the bottom line is, don’t throw them in the trash, either save them or find somewhere to donate them. They are valuable!
I was wondering if there was a way to differentiate between which cans were aluminum & which cans were steel? After reading this I immediately started saving my cans from my pantry. I saved for a couple of months & with 5 kids I went through quite a bit more than I thought I would. I was excited thinking I was going to have a decent amount of money to add to our fund. When I got there they immediately told me that the cans were not aluminum & they would not pay me for them because steel doesn’t pay right now. I would only be paid for my aluminum cans. They put them in the seperator & a few of the canned food cans went through as aluminum but only two or three. Out of about 50 lbs of cans I only got paid for my 2 lbs of beverage cans. I am just wondering how you tell the difference between the aluminum pantry cans & the steel? I am just confused right now. Thanks.
For the most part the only aluminum you’ll have is soda cans, aluminum foil (clean, without food), and possibly those aluminum disposable baking trays (again, they need to be clean to be recycled). I honestly don’t know of any pantry cans (soup, veggie, etc) that are aluminum.
I try to recycle everything possible in our household and the only items that end up in our aluminum bin are the ones mentioned above (soda cans, aluminum foil and disposable baking trays).
I know I’ve read before that you can use a magnet to tell if it’s aluminum or not. Steel will be attracted to the magnet while aluminum will not. I haven’t tried this out with many items so I’m not sure if you’d have a false positive for some kind of mixed metal item which may not be attracted to the magnet but also may not be aluminum.