These 8 Sustainable Side Businesses Can Help You Make Money While Protecting the Planet!

Want to make the world a better place and make a little extra money at the same time? A side job that lasts could put you in the green.

Opportunities are growing along with the green economy. According to LinkedIn’s Green Economy Report 2022, the number of jobs in Renewables and Environment has grown by 237% in the last five years. As more businesses and people look for green ways to do things, the demand for sustainable services has gone through the roof.

The good news is this. To get into the sustainable market, you don’t have to change careers. There are many side jobs to think about. Here are some more.

• Farmer’s Market Purveyor

Farmer’s markets aren’t just for farmers. Whether you live on a big farm or in a small city apartment, selling your own goods at a farmer’s market is a great way to make some extra cash.

If you have a garden, you might want to sell the fruits and vegetables that are in season. Offer unique things like herbs, dried fruits, and heirloom tomatoes to stand out. You can also sell houseplants in pots, plants for the garden, or seeds that people can use to grow their own plants.

• Curbside Recycler

Use other people’s trash to make money. People don’t recycle as much as they could because, in many places, it’s just not easy enough. You can fix this problem by starting a business that helps people recycle at the curb.

Companies like TerraCycle and BoxCycle will give you the boxes and even take away your trash. You only need to gather the recyclables and run the business. Some things you can recycle that can make you money:

• Cans and bottles
• Old Books
• Wine Stoppers
• Boxes made of paper
• Cartridges for ink
• Gift Cards That Were Not Used
• Used gadgets
• Scrap Metals
• Batteries
• Clothes, accessories, and items for the house

You won’t be able to retire on this money, but you can make some extra cash by doing very little and helping to clean up the world. For example, you might get about $5 per pound for your used cans.

• Curbside Composter

In the same way that curbside recycling is a growing market, so is curbside composting. Many cities and towns don’t have composting programs, so people have to throw away their piles of food scraps.

But what one person throws away is another person’s chance. Some estimates say that a person or family can get rid of 25% of their trash by composting. Make it easy to recycle by putting a bin by the curb that will pick up anything made of plants or animals and take it to a private facility.

Companies like CompostNow offer partnerships that can help you start up your own compost business.

• Tailor

Can you use a sewing machine well? Think about running a business where you help people fix their clothes. Clothing repair helps keep landfills from getting too full and gives everyone a service they can use. Keeping clothes for a long time not only saves people money, but it also helps the environment in the long run.

Everyone wins. So how do you make money sewing? Start by fixing up some clothes for friends, coworkers, and family. Once you feel sure of yourself, use Facebook and local ads to market yourself outside of your inner circle. Also, think about getting a part-time job tailoring clothes at a local dry cleaner or tailor.

• Sustainable Products Maker

Customers are willing to pay more for green products, so the market for them is huge. So how do you get people who want to shop green to buy from you? This path has a wide range of possibilities, but you should think of something that people might want and that can be made in a sustainable way. For example, a soap company that uses sustainable materials or a pet product company that has a net-zero carbon footprint.

• Recycled Product Maker

Your trash could be someone else’s treasure. Start a side business that makes things out of things that have already been used. A business owner could make bike racks out of recycled plastic, furniture out of recycled tyres, or even water bottles out of recycled stainless steel.

Talk to recycling centres and manufacturers in your area and start thinking about how you could make a business happen.

• Green Company Investor

As a side business, a lot of people like to invest. What would happen if you only put this money into the green market? Wall Street is betting more and more on companies with good environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, and major stock brokers are offering sustainable funds that focus on these companies.

Putting money into green companies not only helps them make money, but it can also helps them get known. But you don’t have to only invest in big Wall Street companies. You could also invest in new businesses. Look into venture capital funds that focus on small businesses that can last.

• Rideshare Driver

It might seem like the opposite of going green to drive for Uber, Lyft, or another ride-sharing service. But think about this: What if you wanted to work as a ride-share driver while going to and from your main job? As part of your side job as a ride-share driver, you pick up people along the way and drop them off on your way to work. In your car, you would have gone that way anyway.

And carpooling instead of driving might be better for the environment. A new study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology looked at how ride-sharing affects the environment. It found that ride-sharing is often better for the environment than owning a private car because it produces less pollution.