Does Anyone Still Pay You For Aluminum Cans In Amarillo?

Remember way back in the day when every state, including Texas, was on this HUGE recycling kick? I mean you have to go back to the 80's and 90's to find the campaigns about saving all your aluminum cans, crushing them down, then being able to get five cents per can, or whatever the amount was.

My family did this, and it was an amazing thing. My brother and I used to go out hunting for cans ourselves so we could have our own bag full of them and make a little money. The ones my parents bought, they got the money for.

Over time, that hype seemed to die down. There used to be standalone machines in parking lots you could take the cans to and dump them in. It would count either the weight or each individual can, then spit out money at you. They were similar to those Coinstar machines now.

Those machines are long gone, and seemingly so are all the places you could take those cans to get a little money from them. I had to look into it though, because hey, with the economy the way it is at the moment, a little extra money never hurt anyone.

In Amarillo, I found that you can still find some places that are willing to pay you just a little bit of cash for those crushed up cans, but it's not like it used to be. Most all places that were paying for them stopped doing so during the pandemic.

However, some have gone back to paying for them. Again, they won't pay you per can anymore, but they'll pay you a little by the pound. Life changing money? Absolutely not, but a little extra scratch for a night out maybe? That's more likely.

You can find a list of places in Amarillo that pay for them here.