My Own Trash to Cash experience(s)

A couple of years ago, I read Fitz' trash to cash post. I got excited. It seemed like one of those small "tweaks" you can do and earn extra cash.

And when I later read Benedict's post on the same, I figured I should really try and do it.

So of course the logical next step for me was to twiddle my thumbs and let time pass by unproductively. After a sufficient time (i.e. long enough to be considered "irresponsible") elapsed with absolutely zero progress, I was finally ready to start.

I started by hauling whatever was lying around - plastic bottles, old cardboard boxes, some left over metal tubes...

I was really excited and hauled a trunk-full of crap to sell at the nearest junk shop. I was going to go to SM Trash to Cash, but I couldn't time it right. So I figured it's better to do it then, rather than risk procrastinating again (which in my case is a very, very probable risk).

And sure enough, for my efforts (and willingness to get myself and my car really dusty - did I mention the aforementioned crap was lying around for about a year or more?), I was generously and gratifyingly rewarded with... Php65.

Actually that's not true.

I got Php65, but I don't think it was generous or gratifying. I'm not even sure "rewarded" is the right way to describe it.

However, this isn't to rant about the relative lack of "reward". It's actually not so bad, if you go in with open eyes, so to speak.

A kilo of plastic bottles (and it takes a huge, huge bag of plastic bottles to get to 1 kilo) is worth about 12 pesos (at least in Metro Manila; I'm not entirely sure about the prices outside of the metropolitan area).

A kilo of paper/cardboard (roughly about a regular or large department store paper bag), is worth around 6 pesos.

Scarp metal I think is worth more per kilo than plastic bottles, but I could be wrong.

After "discovering" those prices, I asked myself if it was really worth it. Most especially since my wife was getting annoyed; a fair amount of clutter was usually in the trunk as I waited to gain "critical mass".

On a personal level, I figured it was worth it.

It's not hard to accept that people buy trash, because we've all probably bought crap we wish we didn't. (Well ok; it's probably the dyaryo-bote guys who conditioned our minds that that's just how it is). But a junk shop is a business, and they don't just buy for the sake of buying. They must be able to sell it to someone else. And no one buys trash (aside from a junk shop that is). So that crap probably goes to someone who can recycle it or have some other use for it.

So it's probably good for the environment. And I've always been a lazy environmentalist (meaning I read and empathize, but don't do jack about it). So redirecting my trash to a nearby, along-the-way, seemingly-always-open junk shop seemed like the right thing to do.

But financially though, is it really worth it? (Specially since my next trips netted me just around Php25 each for my trouble.)

Well, it's not something to really make money off of. It's better to treat it like a discount or a rebate.

(Note: Especially paper products! I could get 1 kilo in about a month or less: old receipts, cereal boxes, used bond paper, paper bags, fliers, leaflets, pamphlets, those promos/ads that comes with your bill... I mean, the amount of paper you go through without even noticing is remarkable.)

But the blunt truth is that it's only worth it if you can cut out overhead.

If you need to use a car to make a special trip to the junk shop (or SM Trash to Cash) it's not worth it; unless you have 10 (or 100) kilos of junk. But it's better if the junk shop is along your normal route. Even better: just sell it to the dyaryo-bote guys; less money but much less effort.

If you have to clean the junk before you sell it (because, you know, you can't just let that pizza box sit there gathering insects while waiting to sell it next month), it's probably not worth it either.

In the end though, it's something everyone should consider doing. Plastic bottles and paper products aren't too hard to accumulate, provided you have space to do so. Money-wise, you maybe get Php200 or more a year. It's not much, but it doesn't take much effort either.

It's probably best to think about it as a rebate for helping the environment.

This post was sponsored by Wealth Within Institute, the foremost share trading education provider in Australia. Check out their website to find out more about their share trading courses.


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