I Just Made $30 In Less Than 15 Minutes

I’ve been staying close to home - waiting for baby number three to arrive - and doing some work in the yard. Yesterday, I pressure washed the siding on our house and spent some time edging our driveway and freshening the pine straw in our flowerbeds. I like working outside and I’ve been busy taking care of a few small projects, trying to keep my mind occupied.

A few years ago, I took down our old, broken over-the-air television antenna. When I took it down, I just threw it behind our shed, out of sight, and for the most part, out of mind. But, a few days ago, a friend mentioned that aluminum prices had gone up and that he was getting 42 cents, per pound, for aluminum cans. Most old antennas are made from aluminum, so I backed my truck up to the back of the shed and started breaking the antenna into little sections. It took about five minutes, the antenna was disassembled and ready for recycling. I also found an old road sign, left by the previous occupants of our house, and an old awning which had blown off of our church. I suspected (and I was right) that the sign and the awning were also made from aluminum. So, I loaded them into the truck as well.

This morning, with no signs that baby number three was ready to be born, I headed to the local recycling plant. After weighing the sign, the antenna parts, and the awning, the guy running the plant handed me $30. It was pretty cool to get paid for junk that I would normally have just taken to the local dump. Subtracting gasoline costs from the equation, I probably netted $25 or so - for less than 15 minutes of actual work.

Edit:  I just found out that aluminum cans fetch even MORE per pound - between 75 and 80 cents!