Recycle / Recycling

Recycling is easy with ecycler.com, a web site that matches people who wish to recycle their aluminum cans, plastic and glass bottles and newspapers with people who want to pick them up and redeem them for cash.

Signing up to be a recycler on the site is simple. People at businesses or residences with recyclables to give away can register on ecycler.com and the site will match them with collectors in their area who wish to pick up the items. The collectors arrange a time to pick up the recyclables, which can be left at a location that's convenient for the discarder, such as the back door of a house or the entrance of a business.

Once the collector picks up the items, all he or she has to do is take them to a local recycling center and get paid for the items. Most recycling centers pay more as the number of items increases, so it pays to wait to pick up items until the discarder has a good bagful of cans or papers. Or, if the discarder wishes for a small number of items to be picked up immediately, the collector can hold onto them until he has enough from that discarder, or multiple discarders, to make a trip to a redemption facility worthwhile. The amount of money that can be earned can provide a nice source of supplemental income.

Ecycler.com can then be used each time a collector wants to pick up recyclables in his area - either from the same discarder or from multiple new discarders. The site creates entrepreneurship opportunities for collectors and provides an easy way to manage the collector's own ecycling business. The site even allows collectors to download personalized posters that can be posted at local supermarkets and coffee shops, as a marketing tool to attract additional discarders.