Let me start off by saying that when I was a kid in the 1930's we were very poor as were many other people and like most other kids I wanted a bicycle. Well the money just wasn't there, but that was when some older boys in the neighborhood introduced me to the city dump, a wonderful, magical place where an enterprising young man could find the parts to build anything. Needless to say, I had my bike in short order. Thank God for the rich folks who just throw broken things out!
I read an article today about a mother and father and two children that are saving 40% off their budget just by being Green. Now the way I look at that is that is even if the author of the article was off by 50% they would still be saving 20% of their monthly family budget. They did it by recycling everything and threw out less than a quart of trash or garbage in a year. We never throw out garbage for example, we have a spot where we compost it in the back yard in a recycled plastic drum. There are lots of plans for that on the Internet for free. Add a few worms to your compost and pretty soon you will have thousands of them and you can even sell them to fishermen. Once you get started composting you can start a garden patch and raise fresh vegetables. Keep the size manageable. A half a dozen tomato plants for instance, will keep you in tomatoes for the summer. Composting leads to all kinds of revenue streams. It's up to you what you do with it. It's also a great way to turn dead leaves and grass into new black soil. There is plenty more information on the Internet about earthworms, food composting and even selling fresh vegetables. And if you are really resourceful you can do it with no money.
If you need lumber for a small project you can usually find all you need on the curb on trash day from old furniture and scrap from home renovations. Some people even repair the old furniture and sell it at flea markets and garage sales.
The curb is also one of the best sources for scrap materials for folk art projects that require steel, wood, metal or plastic materials. You can also find pots and pans, garden hoses that just need new fittings on the ends, garder tools that only need new handles, power tools, pumps, vacuums and electric motors from appliances right on the curb. A great source of copper, aluminum and iron. It just goes on and on.
If you don't mind an older system you can even find enough parts on the curb to build an entire computer system in one day.
Locate the scrap metal and cardboard dealers in your area and check which ones pay the highest prices because they do vary. Car batteries, for example, bring good money for the lead.
When I see a a big pile of trash on the curb, I don't really see trash, I see a revenue stream. If you have a truck there are many people that will pay you to take the trash to the landfill. If you take the time to sort it out you can double your profit. Every day there are tons of metals, news paper, cardboard, pallets and lumber going into the landfills. Anyone can become a recycler and make a lot of cash money. In my day they called us "Dump Pickers" and I'm proud to say that is how I got my start.
© 2015 Walt Barrett
If you scroll to the bottom of this blog you will find over 300 more blogs written by Walt Barrett. Plus he has 9 more blogs with the index being at www.WaltBarrett.com
