“People have started buying garbage” – that seems like an impossible thing, however, that is happening in New York. People will pay you not for cleaning up the garbage but for adding garbage to their home. This business is real fun and what could be better – you even get paid for it.

Here we are talking about converting garbage into a piece of art. See www.nycgarbage.com to understand what we are talking about here. You just collect garbage from your city and package it as a piece of art – an artist’s creation.

So how do you go about it?

For this business, you need just 3 things: Garbage, treatment of garbage (so that it doesn’t smell or rot), and packing material for the garbage.

If you were to observe a few garbage bins, you would quickly know what things are found in them e.g. cola cans, movie tickets, paper, aluminum foils, plastic carry bags, train tickets, newspaper, etc. Make a list of all these things. Note that you are looking for non-perishable items here, so food and other such stuff is ruled out. Now many of these things will be in your own garbage bin too. So, that will be a good place to begin. Other than that, you can earmark garbage bins that offer a good assortment of garbage items (non-perishable). You need variety and you need things that are unusual or interesting. In addition, you should be able to pick up the garbage easily i.e. without messing yourself up (do not try to dig too much in bins).

You could also create your own garbage e.g. spill some tea or coffee over sheets of paper (or newspaper) and let it dry up to give it a very dirty and old look. Other things include crumbling aluminum foils at home, using artificial coloring/de-coloring agents on the garbage items in order to make them look old and dirty and use scrubbers to spoil the texture of various garbage items.

Since moisture is the main reason behind the rotting of garbage, all the garbage needs to be dried up (whatever garbage you collect should be more or less in a dry state already). You can use any method for drying the items; such as using drying agents etc. The key is to take out all traces of moisture from it. You can also add a couple of silica gel packets when packing this garbage into boxes.

For packaging, use transparent boxes (preferably plastic ones) that are big enough to hold garbage. You can print (or stick stickers of) the name of your business and details about the garbage on the box. Include things like when the garbage was collected, from where it was collected, what all it includes and any other interesting/humorous remark about that garbage. All of the packaging and stickers can be easily procured or printed through local stores.

Tip: You could also give away a small booklet (3-4 pages) of interesting facts about how garbage decays, the process of garbage collection, the disposal of garbage or recycling of garbage.

Tip: You could sell cleaning detergents, garbage bags, and cleaning brushes too.

The best way to advertise your business is to get the attention of media to it. So inform the local newspapers and TV-channels about your business. They too are looking for interesting news all of the time, so they might publish your story. Do not forget to mention your website address in the story. Also, leave your flyers, business cards, and pamphlets at collectibles shop, markets, and exhibitions and distribute them at local fairs too.

Resources:

- Drying agents/devices:

www.drierite.com

- Interesting facts about garbage:

www.gettrashed.org/store/recyclingINFO.html