As spring spreads across the Northern Hemisphere, those who live in areas of melting snow have most likely noticed the large amounts of trash that has piled up over the course of the last few months.

In my experience, as a resident of Minnesota, this buildup of trash and debris is very unappealing and makes our roads and neighborhoods look far from ideal. It makes me frustrated to know that the citizens of my city are so careless as to where their garbage winds up. I often try to pick up garbage when I go on walks with my family, but I admit it is difficult to stay motivated due to the sheer amount of it.

However, recently I discovered a website that can make me a little bit of money while cleaning up my city. PepsiCo has created a reimbursement program called ‘PEPCOIN’ that allows people to receive cash back for those who purchase a variety of 60 drinks and snacks from Pepsi and Frito Lay, including Cheetos, Mountain Dew, Doritos, Aquafina, etc. For each 20 oz. bottle of soda, a user can receive 19 cents and 10 cents for any bag of chips and/or snacks. While this does not seem like a lot, it can add up rather quickly. Users can link their Venmo or Paypal for instant payouts as soon as their accounts hit $1.

While this program may not seem directly relevant to cleaning up your community, I have realized that lots of people seem to toss soda bottles and chip bags out the window while driving. This led me to the idea that while picking up trash, I can find plenty of these Pepsi and Frito Lay products scattered amongst the other garbage. I have successfully redeemed quite a few of these codes through PEPCOIN. I believe that this app is a great way to incentivize cleaning up your communities and roads while at the same time making a bit of cash to make it worth your while!

Feel Free to take a look at the article I wrote for Medium as well:

https://justinbrendon.medium.com/how-you-can-make-money-while-cleaning-up-your-community-2d7daf635db3