Project Trash to Cash

The other day as my son & I were driving to the redemption center, he was looking out the window & saw discarded cans along the roadside. He calculated his "findings" to amount to about 60 cents by the time we got there.

That conversation sparked an idea! I told him we should begin a new mission once our current "Helping Hands" project is complete. The focus of the new project will be greening up the roadsides and seeing how much money we can "find" in the process. We plotted & planned what we would do, what our goal would be, and what we would do with the "funds".

Here is the recap of what we came up with:

The Mission:
Project Trash to Cash

The Action:
collect returnables from roadside, playgrounds, fields, parks, waterways & open areas (even trash cans!) for one whole year.

The Goal:
pick up at least two cans each day, or 14 cans each week; 56 cans between the four of us.

The Proceeds:
if we all reach our daily goal, we should net $174.72. We agreed that we would split the money 50/50 with a charity then put our half in our annual vacation fund.

The Greater Good:
greening up & recycling, plus supporting a charity & investing in the future.

My father-in-law does a similar thing every year: he collects discarded coins and puts them in a jar. At the end of the year, he counts, rolls, and redeems it. After he records the total in his ledger, he takes his wife out to lunch. He calls his project "Found Money".