7 Things You're Throwing Away That Are Actually Worth Money
Your junk drawer, recycling bin, and garage are quietly leaking cash — and fixing that is easier than you think.
Every household has that corner. The box in the basement, the drawer nobody opens, the recycling bag sitting by the back door on its way to the curb. The place where money goes to die. Not metaphorical money. Actual, redeemable cash, often sitting two feet from where you’re reading this right now.
Most of us know, in a vague sort of way, that “recycling has value.” But knowing and acting on it are very different things. The gap between them is usually a lack of specifics: which things are worth what, and where do you actually take them? That’s what this article is for. Here are seven things you’re probably throwing away that have real monetary value, some of them surprisingly high.
The gadgets collecting dust in your junk drawer 📱
Thing #1: Old smartphones and dead electronics. Open that drawer. If you’re anything like most people, there’s a graveyard of phones in there: a cracked model from three upgrades ago, a tablet with a shattered screen, maybe a laptop that stopped charging. They feel worthless. They are not. 🔋
According to the Royal Mint, the gold, silver, copper, palladium, and other metals found in global e-waste are worth a staggering $57 billion, most of it discarded rather than recovered. American Bullion’s analysis makes the gap between reality and perception concrete: a ton of computer circuit boards contains more gold than 17 tons of gold ore. Your individual phone won’t produce a gold bar. But it is worth considerably more than nothing, and that gap matters.
The practical path is not to extract the metals yourself — that’s industrial work. Instead:
Apple’s trade-in program pays up to several hundred dollars for recent models in decent shape
Best Buy, Amazon, and Samsung all run competitive device buyback schemes
Swappa and Back Market specialize in reselling older devices that still power on
Even fully dead phones fetch real money at certified e-waste recyclers, some of which pay by weight or device type
If your old phone still turns on, Swappa tends to beat manufacturer trade-in offers. Always wipe your data before handing anything over. Non-negotiable. 🔒
Thing #2: Printer ink cartridges. Empty cartridges look like pure waste. Most people toss them automatically. But Staples pays $2 per cartridge through its in-store recycling program, and HP runs its own return scheme with rewards credit. Two dollars sounds trivial until you do the math: a dozen cartridges a year is $24 you are currently throwing in the bin. For businesses that print heavily, the numbers climb fast.
The metals hiding in plain sight 🔧
Thing #3: Copper pipes, wires, and fixtures. Renovating your bathroom? Clearing out an old house? Pay attention to what you’re removing. Copper is one of the most consistently valuable scrap metals around. SoFi reports that scrap yards regularly pay over $2 per pound for clean copper. Old plumbing pipe, thick electrical wire, and copper fixtures add up faster than you’d expect. 💰
Other metals worth checking before the skip arrives:
Aluminum (window frames, gutters, old appliances): roughly 40–70 cents per pound
Brass (door hardware, hinges, old candlesticks): pays better than basic steel
Cast iron (radiators, old bathtubs, heavy cookware): test with a magnet — if it sticks, you have something valuable
Stainless steel (kitchen equipment, industrial fixtures): earns more than regular steel because of the chromium content
Take five minutes to sort before you drive to the scrap yard. Mixed metals earn mixed prices. Separating ferrous from non-ferrous is worth the small effort.
Thing #4: Broken or ugly gold jewelry. Broken chains, solo earrings, rings in styles nobody has worn since 2003 — these look like clutter. They are not. Gold buyers pay by weight and purity, not by craftsmanship. A snapped clasp or a deeply unfashionable setting does not reduce the metal’s value at all. The gold is the gold, regardless of what surrounds it. Local gold buyers, pawn shops, and online buyers like Circa Jewels all compete for this material. Get at least two quotes before you commit. ♻️
Have a look through your jewelry box this week and weigh what’s there — you might be surprised what you’ve been ignoring.
Your recycling bin is basically an ATM 🌍
Thing #5: Glass and plastic bottles. This one depends on where you live, but if you’re in a deposit-return state or country, the bottles you casually drop in the recycling bin have a face value attached to them. Michigan pays the highest rate in the US at 10 cents per bottle or can. Most deposit states pay 5 cents. SoFi estimates that 2.5 million plastic bottles are thrown away every hour in the United States alone. That’s an enormous pool of unclaimed deposit money circling the drain. Check your state’s environmental agency site if you’re not sure whether a deposit scheme applies where you are. ♻️
Honestly, this might be the most actionable item on this entire list. Have you been returning your bottles, or is this something you’ve been meaning to start? It’s one of the simplest, no-investment wins in sustainable living — no special equipment, no learning curve, just a bag and a bit of habit.
Thing #6: Vintage hand tools. This one surprises people. That rusty old handsaw in the garage, the wooden-handled chisels, the classic hand plane buried under newer stuff — to the right buyer, these are worth real money. Older hand tools were built to better tolerances than most of their modern equivalents, and experienced woodworkers know it and will pay accordingly. 🪚
Look for brands like Stanley, Disston, Millers Falls, and Sargent stamped on old planes and saws
Rust is not a dealbreaker — it cleans up with basic restoration, and buyers expect it
eBay is the best market here; search completed listings to see what items actually sold for, not just what people are asking
Facebook Marketplace and forums like WoodNet have active vintage-tool communities with buyers who know exactly what they want
Even broken tools find buyers among collectors who restore them for parts or disassemble them for components.
The kitchen castoff that actually pays 🍳
Thing #7: Used cooking oil. I think this is the genuinely surprising one. Used fryer oil, bacon grease, and cooking fats have a second life as biodiesel feedstock, and companies that produce biodiesel will pay you for them. This is not a fringe thing. 🌱
Restaurant-scale producers sell their used oil directly to collectors, but households can participate too. Services like Olleco and various regional biodiesel co-ops accept residential cooking oil in sealed containers. Some municipalities run collection programs. The payout per gallon varies by region and current fuel prices, but it’s real money for something you’re currently pouring down the drain. Beyond the financial return, keeping fats out of the sewage system is one of those unglamorous but important environmental wins. Fatbergs — massive congealed blockages formed from cooking fat and wet wipes — are a genuine infrastructure problem in cities worldwide, and every gallon you divert helps. ♻️
If this article has you rethinking what goes in your bin, 6 Things You’re Recycling Wrong (and How to Fix Them) covers a lot of the quiet habits that undercut good intentions. And if you’d rather repurpose than sell, 10 Upcycling Ideas That Turn Trash Into Decor Worth Showing Off has some genuinely satisfying options that don’t require a trip to the scrap yard.
The common thread across all seven of these is the same. The value was already there. It just needed someone to notice it. So: which of these is sitting in your home right now, and what’s actually stopping you from doing something about it this week?