How To Make Money From Rubbish

You will be surprised at what rubbish you can sell on ebay!

After completing stage one of my transformation from wasteful plonker to frugal superstar it’s now time to start cranking this saving lark up a notch. I have stopped haemorrhaging money like it is going out of fashion and I’ve been looking at ways I can make money for very little effort. So how can I get money for rubbish on ebay, and just what is selling?

Time to release the puns…

On a roll

A couple of months ago I came across a blog post from another frugal money saver about selling empty loo rolls which led me to the question – Can I get paid to poo? Sure enough a quick search on eBay revealed yes indeed people will buy empty loo rolls to use for arts and crafts. Think home made Christmas crackers, gardening seeds, dog treats and the like.

I have been stashing them away ever since and will continue to do so until I have managed to build up a nice little collection to sell as a job lot. It seems the going rate is approximately £5 for 50, or, 10p per empty roll that would have just been thrown away anyway! I’ll let you know how much I make when I have sold some.

What ever next? Paid to get drunk?

Hell yeaaaaah! Upon further investigation, still on eBay, people are also willing to buy the ring pulls off canned drinks. If you like a few beers like me, have children who love fizzy drinks, or work in a place with people who like a can of coke or two, get collecting. Maybe even a spot of litter picking might become appealing. 200 ring pulls are going for £3.40 and there is even a job lot of 1000 at the moment priced at £15.00. The red ones seem to command a higher price at 200 for £4.00.

No more whining about recycling

Wine bottles are also sellable. I can’t believe I have never thought of this one before considering I’ve had a couple of attempts at making my own wine. Home wine brewing kits are becoming more and more popular, unsurprising when you consider the saving you can make compared to buying at the local Off License or the supermarket. With some kits making as much as 30 bottles at a time they are an item in demand. A job lot of 60 empty wine bottles can fetch up to £15.00.

That’s the spirit

Just like wine bottles, spirit bottles can also earn you a few quid on eBay. Ranging from £3.00 right up to £40.00 for the more rare branded bottles. My better half is partial to a gin and whiskey or two and the empty bottles won’t be going in the bin anymore, especially when the more fancy stuff finds its way into the cupboards on special occasions like birthdays and Christmas. The arts and crafty people of the UK are upcycling them into rather decorative garden lamps so there is money to be made.

You can definitely clean up

Hand soap/sanitiser bottles are being sold ranging in price from 99p up to £4.50. There are also spray bottles going at a job lot price £9.99. One man’s rubbish really is another man’s treasure it seems.

That really takes the biscuit

Now I am not suggesting you rob your grandma of her sewing kit, but it might be worth having a word about saving them for you to sell on should she not have a use for any others she buys throughout the year. Biscuit tins are going for a fairly reasonable price on eBay ranging from 99p to £9.99. In some cases it seems they are more valuable without the biscuits in them. Go figure!

Time to wake up and smell the coffee

It is pretty incredible how much empty Douwe Egbert coffee jars are going for on eBay right now. You can earn from £2 a pop right up to £4.

If you are lucky enough to have one of the limited edition jars such as the Orla Kiely ones you can make over £8 per jar!

Many people are using these to make their own version of Yankee candles so there is certainly money to be made either simply selling the empty jars, or, making your own candles to sell on. Either way stop throwing them away. Even standard Nescafe jars are selling so keep your eye out at work for empty ones knocking about that might otherwise be thrown away.

Could selling rubbish add up to an ISA payment?

That’s the plan. If I can get paid for my rubbish and make £200 it covers one Help to Buy ISA payment this year for something that would have just been thrown away. All of a sudden I no longer see rubbish and only pound signs. I’ll let you know how I get on. Why not give it a try yourself, put it towards a holiday, clear a debt or whatever you want to spend it on. It’s better than putting it in the bin!