Heading to warmer climate

I'll be leaving WV in 2 weeks moving out to Hawaii. As I was looking for recycling centers on the island of Oahu, I found another recycling center on the Big Island of Hawaii. 5.5 Cents per aluminum can??? Man Oh Man!!! Got Cans, Brada??

Recycle Center Hilo, HI - Mr K's Recycle & Redemption Center





They even offer Plastic Recycling @.05 Cents a Pound.

Congratulations. That is a big move. I moved to a warmer climate this week, from the unheated shop to the house. Big difference in attitude, just as much as yours will be. Good luck creating your new cliental.

I was stationed on Oahu for about 9 1/2 years. Which island are you going to live on? I found other ways of making extra money on the island you may be interested in. Let me know where you end up and if you are curious about the other avocations. Shaka Bra, Mike

Originally Posted by kane333

Oahu. Up by Waimea Bay. My Father is Hawaiian and owns a house up Pupukea. He is Ret. LTC. US Army. He retired at Schofield Barracks, 1975. I've got big family on the islands. I'll be joining into an established business with one of my uncles and my brother. Farming coconuts, mango, papaya, taro, breadfruit, lemongrass, cassava, etc. The two main ideas are Coconut Oil, which is a hot commodity right now, and Biodiesel. My uncle has over 250 acres of land he farms at Dillingham Ranch Lodge, over 500 acres on the island of Kauai, and just landed a contract for almost 800 acres as a preliminary test site on Maui with the potential for 176,000 acres more. That's correct....176 Thousand Acres.... The Sugar Plantation on Maui has to change course because the EPA has come down on them for the burn tactics they use when harvesting sugar cane. They want to move out of sugar cane and need someone who has experience with island agriculture so they called on my uncle who has been farming the islands for over 30 years and knows his stuff. The partnership between Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company and our family could potentially be quite lucrative.

What other ways were you into for making that extra money?

Seriously big deal. I am hopeful you will be too busy to scrap or do any of my ideas.

Here they are and I know all have worked:

Metal detect in the surf for gold rings(my wife and I did extremely well), Good detectors are not cheap. I would start with a Minelab detector, check out Kellyco

Metal Detectors for Hobbyists and Professionals from KellyCo

Next buy stuff at yard sales(we bought mostly on base)and sell at the giant flea market at the stadium. Big hint wash the stuff before you sell it. Be prepared to get there real early and be ready to wholesale to the "regular" sellers and move a lot of stuff quickly. We quickly developed relationships with some of the regular sellers and were often sold out early.


We even sold mangoes that my wife would pick during the week by driving a different route each day dropping the kids at school. My wife is Vietnamese so she got permission much easier than I would have. With mangoes all over the island I couldn't believe just how fast we sold out. The key to the mangoes is knowing when to pick them so the would be ripe or close to it when we sold them. My wife knew how to do that.

At one time we purchased all the fruit from Jack Fruit tree. And we quickly sold all that the wife didn't eat.

One of my wife's friends raised specialty vegetables, greens and spices in pots in base housing and sold restaurants. My wife said she did well with it.

Another of my wife's friends dumpster dived on base around the barracks and wholesaled it to people selling at the flea market. Another would pick up sea weed, dry it and sell it.

Oh and one of best stories was a couple who my wife knew the wife also Vietnamese. The husband is Japanese/local and both her family and his family were very unhappy with the apparent lack of their success in life.

What their families didn't know about the husbands job would have changed their minds. He had gotten a job driving a tractor on the beach with big rotation brush and cage that would clean the beach. This was a job considered good for college students because of the low pay and short hours.

Well the husband would operate his tractor in a low gear with high rpm's and lowered the brush rig down as deep as he could. He would dump the "trash" contents near his pick up and brought home the "trash". At home the whole family assisted cleaning the "trash". Of course there were beach towels and associated items, Al cans, lead weights, money and gold rings. With what the beach produced he and his wife purchased a small farm on the island.

Aloha for now, Mike