6 Ways to Make Money By Recycling Paper

Last updated Mar. 12, 2023 by Peter Jakes

If you live in the city, you know that recycling is essential. It’s not only good for the environment and helps keep our landfills down, but it can also be highly profitable.

If your city has a curbside program, take advantage of it. But if not, here are six ways to turn old paper into cash.

Earn money by collecting paper and cardboard products

Now that you know the basics of paper recycling and how to get started, let’s look at ways to make money from your efforts.

There are many different ways to earn cash recycling paper and cardboard products.

The first option is to collect and sell them to a local recycling company. But there are also other options for making extra cash using this method, including:

• Selling scrap metal for scrap value (eBay or Craigslist)
• Selling items at a garage sale or flea market
• Donating old magazines, newspapers, and books (many charities accept donations)

Sell your paper to a local pulp and paper mill.

You can sell your papers there if you’re lucky enough to live near a pulp and paper mill, as many people in the northeast. The best way to find one is by looking up “pulp and paper mills” on Google Maps (or any other mapping app). You’ll see a map of nearby mills—the bigger the dot, the closer it is.

To sell your paper to them, go into their office or warehouse and tell them how much money you want for your recycled paper.

Some places will ask that you bundle all of it together so they don’t have to sort through individual pieces themselves, so consider keeping all of your recyclables in one place until someone comes over from the mill with a large van who’ll take all of it away at once.

Once this happens (and hopefully), give them an enormous high five because now YOU’VE EARNED MONEY FROM RECYCLING.

Sell your paper to a paper recycling company.

To sell your paper to a recycling company, you’ll first need to find one in your area that pays by weight. You can search online or look in the phone book.

Once you’ve found one, call and ask them how they pay their customers; some companies offer a flat rate per pound of paper while others pay based on the material’s market value.

If they offer a per-pound price, ask them how much they’d be willing to pay for each type of paper (magazines and junk mail don’t have much value but white office paper does).

If you’re interested in learning more about what types of companies accept recyclables such as cardboard boxes or plastic bottles—and where these items will get recycled—check out Earth911’s list of recycling centers near me here.

Sell your paper for publication in print or online

If you have a lot of old newspapers, magazines, or catalogs in good condition, you can sell your article for publication in print or online.

The first step is to ensure that you have the right paper for publication. For example, if an online magazine only accepts submissions on a particular type of stock with a specific weight and brightness, ensure that you meet those standards before sending any samples.

Some publications will pay by the pound, so keeping track of your paper’s weight is essential when you start selling it as submission material.

Some may also ask how many pages are included in each shipment so they can calculate how many pounds they are getting from each batch and will know how much they owe you at the end of the month if they purchased all of your papers from one particular week’s worth (or more)

Collect used aluminum cans

In the United States, the most recycled item is aluminum cans. Recycling aluminum saves energy, saves money, and saves space.

Aluminum can be recycled indefinitely, and it’s so valuable that recycling one ton of it saves enough energy to power a home for two weeks.

The process for recycling used aluminum cans is simple:

• First, clean the cans before putting them in your recycling bin (this includes washing off any residue).

Collect only clean cans – including their lids if they have them (lids are also recyclable). If you find any broken or rusted ones, throw those away.

Try gardening with shredded paper mulch.

An excellent way to make money from recycling paper is to use it as mulch. If you’re an avid gardener, you can create your shredded paper mulch using recycled materials.

First, gather up all the old newspapers and cardboard boxes in your house and put them in a pile outside where they won’t get blown away by the wind or eaten by animals (if you don’t have any more room indoors).

Next, grab some scissors or a knife and start chopping! You’ll want to chop up the papers into small pieces—about 1/2 inch wide so they’ll break down quickly when they decompose later.

Next comes the fun part: loading up your car with that stuff and taking it to the dumpster. Don’t worry if it gets wet while driving there; this will help speed up the process of making composted material out of those newspaper clippings.

Once at home again (with some empty bags!), spread out those shreds across your garden bed like so much mulch for planting seeds or growing plants without having them grow too close together because there’s plenty of room between each piece,” says blogger Jessica Trompeter from her website

The Organic Gardener who has been using shredded paper since 2009.”Let nature continue until winter comes again when we go through another cycle.”

What happens to recycled paper

Recycled paper is either sold to be remade into new products or used to create energy.

In both situations, the value of recycled paper depends on the quality of the recycled paper.

The better the quality, the more likely it will be sold to be remade into new products, which means it’s more likely to have been appropriately separated from other materials to preserve its quality.

There are several different ways to measure quality when it comes to recycled paper, but here are some things that indicate good quality:

Production waste should be minimal.

The fibers should be relatively consistent and clean.

There should be little to no ink or toner left on the page.

The paper should not have been stored under humid conditions.

The sizing agents like clay should not have an unpleasant odor.

Finally, the watermark should not be present; if present, it should have been removed chemically.

Sell paper for recycling.

Sell Paper for Recycling paper is a resource that is easily accessible but rarely taken advantage of.

I know this because I’ve been selling paper for recycling for the past year, and I can tell you there are plenty of people out there who would rather throw their old stuff away than make a few bucks on it.

However, selling paper for recycling doesn’t take too much effort and can earn you some cash for your next big project.

FAQ

How do businesses recycle paper?

In the same way that people do at home by using recycling bins. Paper products in offices are usually handled separately from other materials.

This is so they can be sold to the right company at the right time. Non-office paper is sent to a facility where it’s sorted according to its weight and quality, rolled, and packaged for sale to companies who use it to make things like toilet paper or cardboard boxes.

How do you recycle paper at home?

There are a few different ways to recycle paper at home, but first, you must figure out what kind of paper you’re dealing with.

If it’s just regular printer paper or some take-out menus, the best way to recycle them is by shredding the form for making new products.

This can be used for storage, like folders and file folders, but it can also be recycled into new printer paper directly.

If you don’t want to do this yourself, you can always drop off the paper at a recycling center that accepts it.

If you’re trying to figure out how to recycle old envelopes or other old papers that are still intact, you could rip them into pieces and use them as filler in your compost pile.

You could also tear them into strips and use them as cleaning rags around your house. The best way to recycle old school notes and other more fragile papers is by shredding them just like printer paper (or even envelopes) and then throwing them all together in a single recycling bin.

Don’t try to separate different kinds of recyclables—it’s too hard for centers to sort through them, so they will end up with a big mess on their hands.

Why should we recycle paper?

We’re all aware of the environmental toll of not recycling paper. You may have even seen that video or heard that statistic about how much energy is wasted to make new paper, and we all know that trees take a long time to grow back.

But what many people don’t know is why recycling paper is such an essential part of our daily lives.

The truth is that there are many reasons we should recycle paper, the three most important being: environmental protection, economics, and reducing waste.

What are the five advantages of recycling?

But despite some of these disadvantages, recycling is still an environmentally sound practice that everyone should participate in because it has a lot of tangible benefits. Here are just five of them.

1) Recycling reduces carbon dioxide emissions by reducing energy use

2) Recycling reduces landfill space by reducing the number of landfills needed

3) Recycling reduces the amount of land needed for agriculture and food production

4) Recycling reduces numerous natural resources needed to produce consumer goods

5) Recycling can help you save money by reducing the cost of purchasing new items

What are the benefits of paper?

The Paper is white; it’s clean, and it’s affordable. While it may not be the most exciting thing in the world, the paper has many benefits beyond its visual appeal. Here are a few:

1. Paper can be recycled.

2. Paper is easy to work with and requires no special tools.

3. Paper is inexpensive and easy to find. It can be found at many stores, including office supply stores, bookstores, and gift shops.

4. Paper comes in different sizes and styles to fit your needs and preferences. You can get it in various widths from 8 inches up to 28 inches and multiple lengths from 10 yards to 100 yards.

5. You can use paper from wrapping gifts and scrapbooking to writers or drawing pictures for your children.

Is paper recycling profitable?

The short answer is yes—it’s profitable. If you’ve ever had to sift through a load of papers and sort them into boxes of different colors, then you might think that it’s not worth the trouble.

But what people don’t know is how much money goes into recycling.

You see, the recycling companies pay for everyone’s hard work. They’ll send trucks around with workers who get paid by the pound for collecting your recyclables.

Every time someone throws something out, they lose money because they won’t get paid for it.

Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees and 200 gallons of oil, so this isn’t an activity we should be skipping out on. So go ahead.

Summary

Recycling is a convenient way to earn some extra cash with the help of local resources.

Recycling is good for the environment because it reduces pollution and helps preserve natural resources. It also reduces greenhouse gas emissions from burning trash in landfills, further contributing to global warming.

Recycling paper also helps keep trees from being cut down for paper production, thereby protecting rainforests worldwide.

In addition to these benefits, recycling is suitable for your community’s economy because it creates jobs and allows individuals to sell their scrap materials at local recycling centers or online websites like eBay or Craigslist (more on later).

Because people are spending less on products made out of virgin resources like metals and plastics, they have more money available in their budgets—which means they can spend more on other goods and services like food or transportation services.

This process creates an upward spiral effect where each individual does his part by becoming more efficient at using his resources wisely so he can save up enough money for more significant purchases down the road, such as vacations abroad, instead of going into debt over time without realizing it until later when he has accumulated too much debt load due to high-interest rates imposed by credit card companies offering 0% APR offers during promotional periods

only after a certain amount has been spent within three months time period when compared against current inflation rate trends occurring over the past few months, which could be quite high depending upon location, such as -0%, 0% (meaning no change), +1%, +2%; etcetera depending upon currency exchange rates between countries involved; plus how much risk one takes when converting USD$ into EURO currency pairings?

I hope this article has helped you to understand how easy it can be to make money recycling paper. It’s a simple way to help the environment and save some cash, so why not try it? I know that I plan on collecting my next batch of paper from around the house today.