How can junk make school fundraising shine? I never thought that faithfully watching episodes of “This Old House” would lead me to a great idea for school fundraising. A while ago, we bought a fixer-upper and gutted the home. Friends told us to take the metal, nails, and screws accumulated through the process to the local scrap yard. So we did – and ended up with over $170(!) from what was really just junk. The trash was gone, and we made money, to boot!

We’re familiar with canned food drives during Thanksgiving, why not have a “With cans, We can” or “Scrap for School” drive? Gear this school fundraiser around cleaning the clutter and junk out of the home or office and recycling the metal for better use. Kids (and parents) learn about recycling in the process, too.

Place “Scrap” cans around school so that kids, parents, and teachers can drop off old metal objects. Parent or teacher volunteers (hopefully someone with a truck) will help collect the fundraising bins and bring them to the local metal recycling center. There’s a real feeling of exhilaration when someone gives you money just for collecting scrap. Imagine how much better it’ll be knowing that this school fundraiser was a success for your school and helped clean up the community as well.

Tip #1: Make this school fundraiser an on-going, year-long effort and highlight the importance of recycling as a lesson to your kids.

Tip #2: If you want to maximize the money you can raise for your school, set aside time to separate the metals by type. Aluminum, Copper, Brass, Stainless Steel raise more cash than Steel/general metal and scrap yards will pay more if you’ve sorted your scrap for them. Kids can do this as long as they wear protective gloves. Separating your collection into metal ‘buckets’ can be fun to do as group, plus you may learn a couple things about different metals in the process.

This “Scrap for School” fundraiser is really easy to implement and is great for your school. First, it costs practically nothing – you just need signs and transportation. And second, your kids contribute to their community and environment by developing the recycling, not only during the time you implement this fundraising program, but hopefully for many years ahead. This is one school fundraising idea where your kids can develop environmentally friendly habits that make the world a better place for generations to come.

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