Make Money in Your Closet Space: Paper Recycling and Home Made Paper

Good morning eco friendly readers! It's springtime, and the sun is shining!

Today, I am pleased to bring you the first of what will be many more posts on eco friendly and patriotic money making opportunities. In fact, I've been scouring the net for months now just looking for these opportunities, and even trying some of them out.

Believe it or not, the old magazines, newspapers, and scrap paper in your home or office are worth a small fortune. In fact, according to the Paper Stock Report, paper mills are paying over 200.00 per ton of paper. Not trees - paper. Chances are, you have tons of the stuff cluttering up your garage, your attic, and going out in the garbage on a weekly basis. Why not turn all that paper into cash?

If you think it is hard to get even one ton of paper, think again. A single ton of paper only takes up about 6 cubic yards of space. You can probably empty out one room of your home, or the attic and use it to store up your paper before you cash it in. YOu can even run this operation in your closet! While some people have been known to rent storage space for it, the fact is you have plenty of space already.

Now - chances are your local recycling facility will only pay you 50.00 or so per ton of paper. Nevertheless, there are dozens of places where you can get ahold of more paper to turn in. Statistically speaking, each employee generates 1.5 pounds of recyclable paper every day. On top of that, 50% of a business's rubbish bill is usually incurred for hauling office paper. A whopping 77% of that paper can be recycled. When it comes right down to it, making a deal with local business owners to take on their paper is good for them, and good for you.

To get started in this business, all you need is a phone and the yellow pages. Next, make sure of the particulars of what your local recycling or waste treatment center will accept, and how much they will pay you. If they don't pay, try another facility.

Once you know how much money you can make, call all the businesses in your area, and explain to them that you want to take on their recyclable paper for free. Even if they think you are nutty as a fruitcake, they will probably go along with your request. Why? It will save them some money. You may even want to let them drop the paper off at your home on a weekly basis.

If you really want to make more money, talk to your friends and neighbors. Ask them to give you their old newspapers and magazines. Arrange a day to pick these things up, so that you can create a manageable route around your area. Once these folks begin to enjoy lower prices on their trash bill (they won't need such large containers), clean attics, and clean garages, they will be more than happy to see you each week. In fact, you may even want to let them know you will accept paper they collect from their family and friends!

If you are creatively inclined, or don't have the intiative to collect tons of paper, there is another related business you can go into. With a few screens and access to water, you can make paper. This, in turn can be used to make everything from novelty items to specialty papers. Believe it or not, people love home made paper for scrap books, frames, and all sorts of things. All you will need to do is open up a webspace, or simply sell your creations on Ebay.

Over to the righthand side of this blog, there is a list of books that will help you get started. There is even a fine little book available to tell you how to make herbal papers. Now - if that doesn't seem very useful, just consider the millions of dollars people spend each year on room and car air fresheners. The bottom line is you can grow some aromatic herbs on your windowsills, and then add them to your home made paper. From there, all you will need to do is cut the paper into interesting shapes and sell them in packs of a dozen or so.

Today, almost everyone can get into eco friendly and patriotic action with recycled paper. The benefits to the environment are easily as valuable as the financial gain you will obtain. Among other things, for each ton of paper that is recycled, 17 trees will not be murdered, 225 kw of electricity don't need to be generated from rapist strip mining methods, and 6 cubic yards of landfill space will not be used. On top of that, recycling paper saves 60,000 gallons of water. Let me tell you - 60,000 gallons at approximately a dollar a gallon is an awful lot of principal spending, plus credit card debt! (please see previous post on The Other Hidden Cost of Cigarettes.)

Remember something. If the environment gets much worse, you will die, your children and grandchildren will die or never even have a chance to be born. If we keep murdering trees and using fossil fuel without getting really, really aggressive about limiting usage and recycling what we do use, we all die. While I am at it, I might add that suffocation, starvation, and dehydration are considered to be some of the most agonizing ways to die. There are no exceptions, there is no getting out of it because you are rich, poor, priviledged or handicapped.

The bottom line is you can change that ugly death scenario by taking action and making eco friendly and patriotic choices right now. Recycle some paper, and stop driving your car so much. If you have even 6 cubic feet of space in your home available, or that you can clear, you can start collecting or actually recycling paper for a profit.

With the summer coming along, you will have plenty of chances to find sources of paper, as well as flea markets and other places to sell anything you might decide to create. You can even keep your kids busy this summer sorting paper instead of wasting their time on useless, energy consuming, and expensive video games.

Freedom Admin