How much money can you make from recycled soda cans?

Question

Someone told me about a nickle per can. Is that true? That seems a little high.

Answer 1

The "5 cents each" rate is a law in almost a dozen states.  I believe Maine has a 10 cent deposit.  When you go to the store to buy a drink, you pay an extra 5 cents per can or bottle.  This is then redeemable when you return it to the store for recycling.  Many of the chain grocery stores have machines out front the count and smash the cans or bottles.

I live in Oregon, close to the Washington border and people frequently cross the border with cans to recycle/redeem (having not paid a deposit on the Washinton side).  

Personally, I find the recycling process (feeding grimy/moldy/sticky cans into a machine) is not worth the $9/hr that you average when performing the task continuously, so I recycle all my cans at the curb.

One artifact of this law is that the homeless population digs through the trash for cans.  While this promotes further recycling, it exposes them to discarded needles, etc. Mixed bag I'd say.  One positive aspect is that collecting cans is often a lucritive fund raiser for youth groups.  When you have cans in bulk they can be recycled by the pound at the local recycling center at a rate equating to about 5 cents per can.

Answer 2

yes that's a little high, here in Ohio  it's 70 cents a pound, and there are sixteen cans in a pound

Answer 3

if you save them for a six month period, it could be a lot...but not if you don't drink or get access to a lot..depends on how many people and how much...

Answer 4

Just read the can..the top will say if you can get $ per individual can in your state.  Otherwise, you can sell them by the pound.  In my area aluminum runs around 65 cents per pound.  Look in the phonebook for scrap metal places, junk yards, and of course recycling facilities in your area.

Answer 5

In Iowa, there is a "deposit" on bottles and cans, so you can take them to a lot of grocery stores and get 5 cents per can or bottle as long as it was bought in Iowa.  Cans or bottles from outside states have to be recycled elsewhere, and I'm not sure how much you get there.

Answer 6

In parts of Ontario it's a dime a can.  There's a few places that will give $ 0.15 per can, but they're all over an hour drive from here, so it's not really worth it anymore.

Answer 7

5 cents each

Answer 8

well u would ethier go to a local scrap yard and they pay so much a pound and  in indiana it's like a $1.00 a pound i would call a local scrap yard and ask them so a 30 gallon trash can bag usally hold about 2 pounds so that $2.00 and so on

Answer 9

To find out where to recycle them, try http://www.earth911.org

Answer 10

are the cans recylcled? or do you want to recycle them?  any way you look at it recycling is good for the enviroment and good for your wallet.... imagine if you had 1000 pounds of aluminum????? at todays rate you would  make a good  dollar.

16 cans per lb?  16000 cans. how long will that take?