Recycling Ink Cartridges and Cell Phones for Cash

Do you have a nonprofit organization or simply a need for extra income around your household? Recycling has long been seen as an opportunity to save the world and do what is right! But looking a bit deeper into the recycling system one can find personal gains in the form of momentary reimbursement. Everyone knows about glass bottles or aluminum cans and how scrap yards will pay sometimes .05cents per can or bottle, but does that really apply to the local church or softball team? Why not take a look at more high dollar items?

Take Ink cartridges for example. Most of today's ink cartridges are made of a high-density plastic formed with oil bi-products, which is primarily the reason why these little hunks of biohazard waste are worth so much. As oil prices grow the cost for such materials grows and thus the need to recycle them becomes ever more present. Online companies offer return programs where organizations, as well as individuals, can ship their cartridges back to the company (the company often pays the shipping) and then receive a check for the value of the cartridges. Often times a shipment of twenty ink cartridges will fetch $40-$60, making this an easy way for your church/daycare/sports team/side business to make some money. Obviously these programs are directed at organizations due to the fact that a majority of consumers do not have loads of empty ink cartridges lying around. However an individual with a source for used cartridges can often fetch just as much as an organization.

Cell phones have become another quick way to earn extra cash. We all have one some of us have two. Most of us have gone through several in our lifetime. Next time you make an upgrade to a new cell phone don't just pitch the old one or give it to the store. Recycle it. The same companies that do programs for ink cartridges do programs for cell phones and sometimes a recycled cell phone can pay 9$ or more. The cell phone industry is one that rolls over quickly and new models come on the scene everyday. Regardless of your own personal preferences I'm sure no one wants to throw money away, even if you have to have the coolest new phone that only weighs as much as two human hairs and looks like a rocking horse you still do not want to throw away the money you could be earning for the old one.

Take a look online or even on AC and you will quickly find the opportunities that I speak of. I have a friend who likes to remind people that there is no such thing as "away", you can never truly throw something away, so next time you go to throw that cell phone or ink cartridge away think of the money you could be gaining instead.