Believe it or not, you can develop a very respectable income collecting and selling paper to the recycling centers. It certainly does not take any education, specialized training or experience; it's as simple as saving your old newspapers and turning them in to a central collection depot.

Some 'paper recyclers' are making more than $100,000 a year in this business. If other people are doing it, then there's no reason you can't do it! About the only equipment you'll need is a pickup truck or trailer that you can pull along be hind your personal car. We even found one 'old timer' who was collecting paper in this era with a pushcart! While interviewing him, we found that he was deliberately choosing not to expand, although he very definitely could have.

The prices being paid for paper these days by the recycling centers will astound you (and remember that the quotations we give here may have escalated sharply since our research). For instance, old news papers are commanding $50 per ton and more; used cardboard, $75 a ton; and high grade office paper as much as $120 per ton. This kind of money for used paper that you can generally pick up for free can move you onto Easy Street in a hurry. Everything, of course, depends on how well organized you are, and how hard you work at building your business.

Make no mistake about it; we live in a paper world. Americans use 200 million tons of paper each year - for everything from daily newspapers to books and cardboard boxes. After quick use, we throw away at least 100 million tons of this paper, almost all of which could be recycled. This means that there's about 8 billion dollars worth of paper out there that can be collected and recycled each year. So if you are looking to start a business with real profit potential, what are you waiting for?

Just look around your own home, in the garage or basement, for instance. What do you do with the old newspapers after you've read them? How about all the mail you get each week? Chances are this waste paper just piles up in some corner of the garage or basement until one of the kids asks if he can haul it off for the school or 'Cub Scout' paper drive. Or maybe your wife and kids get ambitious some weekend, clean out the garage and haul it all off to the collection truck at one of the local shopping centers. (We said maybe!)

It's true that selling stacks of newspapers you've accumulated during the past couple of months or so won't make you rich. In fact, it's doubtful your own accumulation of paper will add up to a ton a year and that certainly won't amount to much in extra income. But think about the tonnage involved in the stacks of old newspapers you could collect from your relatives, friends and neighbours. You could easily collect a l00-pound sack of old newspapers from the people in your neighbourhood each week - and that's your immediate neighbourhood.

And then think about the total extra income you would have when you have hauled all this paper down to the recycling depot. If you're serious, and get yourself properly prepared, you can easily make $300 or more every weekend, and it won't involve all your time. Some planning and effort on your part are the prime requisites.

This business takes organization, some energy on your part, and at least in the beginning, your time. But if you put forth the effort as we have outlined, there's no reason you shouldn't easily realize a very comfortable income with your own Recycling Business.