Just wondering if anyone still collects aluminium cans for cash? As a kid on holidays and camping trips we used to collect them and then cash them in at the local Alcoa station for extra pocket money.
would love to hear your current day experiences if you do and whether or not you think its worth it so that the kids can get a bit extra pocket money over the holidays.
We do the same. We’re in SA.
I switched to collecting PC parts like HDDs once I started working in the industry as the profit is much greater.
Please explain?
By selling hard drives in bulk to scrap dealers I get around $1 per kilo with each HDD weighing around 450g, though I remove the platters first which reduces the weight a little bit. For UPS batteries it's around 50c per kilo and their weight generally starts from 2kg.
Interesting stuff, do they normally show your prices? how do you determine your prices, ie when do you grab all what you got and go and sell it?
@woody007: Prices are usually based on how disassembled the parts are. A fully assembled HDD is going to be purchased for less than a disassembled one splitting the components/materials. Normally I call around the different dealers to find who has the best price and sell at the end of the year.
@woody007: Last year I spent about 2-3 hours disassembling and sorting everything for roughly $400 profit.
@Clear: Thats a nice little bonus for the end of the year…..should i head over to gumtree and ask for free hdd lol.
Should fill it with cement after you remove the platters.
@yippy: Smart but I get far less when they're in that state. Need to remove the other parts to get more back.
Well now you have to do it in QLD just to get your money back because they charge you an extra 10c for every can.
Same in NSW
I was not aware they added it onto the can price, but then i hardly buy alcohol or soft drinks
How about bottle water? Kid juice? Flavoured milk,ice tea? They all added 10 cents
Charge 15c per bottle and get 10c back when depositing it. :(
What did you expect the Government to do … collect taxes from the multinational US Corporation that probably profited from the sale? Liberal and Labour work for the corporations not the population.
The annoying part of this is in a small apartment (no garage) I have nowhere to realistically store enough containers (even cans) to make the trip to drop them off worthwhile, especially with them having to be uncrushed. It's just a deal breaker. There's no deposit scheme within a good distance of me, and even those far away are not on the way to anywhere I actually go by car.
Looked into doing something good for the environment and getting a SodaStream or the like, but that's even MORE EXPENSIVE than my preferred soft drink flavors on special. Hopefully, the scheme ends up with more locations like the local supermarket to make it worth using.
I made a post awhile back that ended up being pretty popular that you might want to look into
Yeah, the expensive part isn't the gas if you want anything other than soda water, unfortunately.
If I wasn't also looking for sugar-free options it would be easier as well.
Nah, just washing and chucking whatever I have in the recycling bin.
Washing? You're Wasting water.
They melt the cans so any drink residue would burn off in that process.
It's more that it doesn't spill in my bin…
Yes, because people will go through my bins and dig them out for themselves, and leave the mess they made on the ground instead of putting them back in the bin if I don't. Wouldn't be doing it otherwise
Surely you can get a bin lock or secure it in some way.
If I lock my bin, then it won't be emptied. This occurs when I put my bins out for collection; all other times they're in my backyard. I just happened to catch this one rifling through my bins
Wouldn't that make it worse because they would empty out the entire contents of your bin out, searching for things that don't exist?
Well, I threatened to call the cops on the one in my above scenario; fair enough if you go through my bin but it infuriated me that they couldn't be bothered picking up the mess they made rather than putting it back in the bin. If they realise that I don't put the 10c items in the bin, hopefully they'll give up on going through my bins.
Just put a big sign on it, saying no deposit containers stored here. Yep every now and again some idiot wont believe it, but most will.
Invest in a pellet gun.
Wait, can you do that in Victoria?
Not really worth it
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/cash-for-cans-scheme-sur…
Mr Zammit said he spent up to 10 hours a week collecting rubbish, which earned him about $70. "It's hard yakka," he said.
That comes to like $90 in before tax income if you are in the second lowest bracket
Do you mean looking homeless while you pick cans out of bins and throw them into a stolen supermarket trolley?
I'd pay good money for your cans.
I have a pile at home, but it isn't economical for me to take them to the nearest drop off point yet. There is an automated one a few kilometers away but I think the gas will exceed the return.
Although I do see lots of people collecting them from people's bins, even though we don't even have a collection point nearby… My guess is they are not from our suburb.
Only get about $1 a kilo in WA
I did when I lived in student dorm. Bottles, milk cartons and cans for 5c each.
I made ~$200 a weekend.
That’s 4,000+ cans/bottles/cartons…
A case of cans is 30 cans. You would need 133 cases to hold 4,000. A pallet holds around 60 cases. You would need 2 and a bit pallets worth to make $200…
yeah, I’m not convinced.
Not when there are ~1000 residents spread over 6 "highrise"… Then there are visitors and parties. Would be more if I actually collected from trash bins.
Wow, how much time did it take to use the machine for earn and return?
They seem really slow to me (and always busy), so I find it isn't worth my time.
I'm hoping I'll go one day and there'll be a kid or family using it, and I can just give them my bottles and cans…
@Never Pay RRP: This is before the machine. There was an old man at the transfer station and he just gave me a flat $200 for a full box trailer. I'm sure it added to around that figure anyway.
Even if there was a machine, I wouldn't have bothered. Theres too much.
My bogan neighbours do it. They keep their smelly rubbish bags full of cans in the back corner of their yard and their bored, never-walked dog rips them open looking for food, creating a huge mess and clean up for them.
Generally people are supposed to rinse and drain them unfortunately.
I live in Canberra and came in not that long ago,I worked it out that we are now paying extra 10c a container,so if I buy 45 cans/bottles from Woolies it now costs an extra $4.50c paid to Woolies and I take them to a collection point it costs me $4.50 petrol costs and that totals %9.00 and I receive 10c per item back which is $4.50 which means it has cost me a total LOSS of $4.50,this system is the same old con that the state and territory governments found another way to con more money out of their customers and the public persons living in their states and territories,do not forget that Woolies and others are making an extra 10c per item,by the way COLES are the worst as they increased their COLES variety soft drinks by 15c per bottle/can,they more than likely put the extra on their branded software,
$4.50 petrol? Must be a hell of a drive, I thought mine was bad being 10 minutes out of my way…
I'm pretty sure the extra 10c you pay at the shop goes to funding the scheme.
Oh, and since this is OzBargain, you can save a lot more than $4.50 by just drinking tap water instead of 45 bottles of soft drink.
Not just in purchasing drinks, consider the future savings in Diabetes treatments! ;)
the 45 bottles is used as an example only,it appears you do not have a 15yr old commodore wagon,I only purchase sugar free soft drinks 2-3 bottles per week,I use 3 ltrs of petrol as the cash in place is at the local tip approx a 40 plus klms around trip (20klms) each way to and from,it is very obvious you do not live in Canberra,petrol price is still OVER $1.40 per litre,you may be in the position of being able to purchase a small moter vehicle,my disability pension does not allow me those pleasures of life,
I think little smart a$$#$ like you should keep your mouth shut thus stopping the crap that comes out of it
do not forget that Woolies and others are making an extra 10c per item,by the way COLES are the worst as they increased their COLES variety soft drinks by 15c per bottle/can,they more than likely put the extra on their branded software,
The 10c increase per can is not profit, they have to collect it on behalf of the government.
If you want to blame someone, it's the government.
the 45 bottles is used as an example only,it appears you do not have a 15yr old commodore wagon,I only purchase sugar free soft drinks 2-3 bottles per week,I use 3 ltrs of petrol as the cash in place is at the local tip approx a 40 plus klms around trip (20klms) each way to and from,it is very obvious you do not live in Canberra,petrol price is still OVER $1.40 per litre,you may be in the position of being able to purchase a small moter vehicle,my disability pension does not allow me those pleasures of life,
I think little smart a$$#$ like you should keep your mouth shut thus stopping the crap that comes out of it
This is a discussion forum, free country, free opinion.
P.S. if you are a professional ozbargainer, you could get U98 at 7/11 at 125.9cpl anytime
Also, you know something that's cheaper and free?
Drinking Water
Straight from the tap
That would save you a lot more money to assist you on your disability pension.
I recently took down all the cans I had been saving for the past 5 years to the scrap yard (no deposit scheme in Vic)
I got $20 for it. Hardest $20 I've ever had to work for. Scrap yard didn't even want to take it at first, but relented when I showed how much I had.
I was thinking of collecting them and doing the same thing as you have done, not anymore. Back when i was young, like 35 years ago on holidays, the old cash a can centres must have been worth it, not anymore obviously
I've been looking at renting a mail van for maximum profitability and carrying all my bottles to South Australia
You need to befriend an Auspost contractor, save money.
I use up a lot of plastic water bottles, always thought I can get 10c per bottle but not sure where to drop them off.
Anyone know any places around Sydney that doesn't involve a 1 hour trip?
Dont squash them
Its a profession in Darwin. On the bin collection day, we see a stream of old (mostly Asian) women wear their conical rice field hats going through the bins. I would think it is but worth 50 bucks to walk around in the sun and and then petrol costs/time at the exchange.
in Darwin?? ok im bemused…..
(for drop off points contact the local council or the State government they will have the details where the cash in places are,)
I would not take your cans to the scrap metal mobs at 10c per can you will be receiving more for your cans and also remember that you can take plastic bottles with the recycle markings on the sticker or on the bottle,
I have trouble getting them there after because I probably don't drain them as well as I could.
I put them in the yellow bin.
yep. but not actively walking around looking for them. just keeping what we buy.
two trips a year to bottle depot = spending money at Royal Show
.