Is there still money in recycling?

[Mila]

I saw a few years ago on the news where this local man would collect and donate recycled goods 3 times a week. He ended up making $800 a month doing this. He was homeless when he started and managed to get back on his feet doing this which I thought was a very uplifting story. I would imagine you would need to do a lot of work to get this kind of money from recycling. Is there still money in it to justify it as a side hustle? 

[James]

If you have a decent reliable source for the recycling it is likely worth it if you have nothing else to do with your time in areas that pay well for the recyclables. 

There is better money if you decided to work with wooden pallets instead. Those get reused and businesses are always looking to move them off their property and other businesses are always looking for more pallets. So if you can figure out a way to get in the middle of that there is money to be made. 

[Scarlett]

There is more money in up-cycling if you know how to do it. I have a friend who started doing this as a hobby and now she makes good money doing it. She would buy cheap used furniture items on Craigslist or find free ones and basically re-purpose them. So she could spend like $50 on an old bookshelf, fix it up, and pocket $200 off it.