Lee Anne Emig, who runs a pet sitting service in the Belleville, Illinois area called "The Pet Nanny" wanted to help a nearby animal rescue group with fundraising. She started a volunteer group called, "Trash for Critters", which collects used printer cartridges and unwanted cellphones, and exchanges them for money.

Lee has already managed to set up collection bins at a couple of stores and an animal clinic, and is actively seeking more volunteers. When exchanging the printer cartridges and cellphones for cash, her group can get between $2.00 to $4.00 for each inkjet cartridge, $1.00 to $12.00 for each laserjet cartridge, and $2.50 for each cellphone.

But what Lee Anne is doing is not new. There are thousands of people like her organizing these "trash for cash" programs all over the country, benefitting thousands of animal rescue groups.

What makes this all possible is a company called CKA Associates, based out of Phoenix, Arizona. CKA runs three printer cartridge recycling programs, "Cash for Critters", "Kash for Kids", and "Recycleaid". Cash for Critters is set up to benefit animal charity groups, while Kash for Kids is set up to target childrens charities. Recycleaid targets businesses and offices that want to earn money by recycling printer cartridges.

CKA Associates got started about five years ago, as a collection service for a larger company, IJR Inc. IJR got started back in 1978, in Southern California, under the name of "Pentec, Inc.", which manufactured pens and markers, along with pens for plotting printers. As the popularity of inkjet printers grew, Pentec reorganized itself into an inkjet cartridge recycling business, and renamed itself to "IJR, Inc" (Ink Jet Renew).

Today, IJR remanufactures printer cartridges for companies that market refilled cartridges to consumers. But in order to replenish itself with an endless supply of old printer cartridges, it relies on the services of CKA Associates.

In January of 2000, IJR started CKA Associates for the express purpose of developing collection programs. Their first program was "Kash for Kids". Today, Kash for Kids is raising funds to benefit schools, youth groups, youth sports, 4-H, Girl and Boy Scouts, and church youth groups. To make it easier for groups to donate cartridges, CKA Associates developed a postage pre-paid mailer system for the collection.

Within a few short months of its launch, CKA signed up more than 1,000 schools to participate in the "Kash for Kids" program. CKA credits its success to the simplicity of the program, and promptness of payments.

Soon after, CKA developed the "Cash for Critters" program to benefit animal welfare organizations. I spoke with Diane Dedes, a spokesperson for CKA, who described the volume of collection groups they are working with. "We have thousands of animal welfare groups who participate in our Cash for Critters Program. They range from a small group of people running an organization, from a home, to a 320 acre facility in Virginia."

So what about the cellphones? How does CKA recycle those? Well, they don't. They sell unwanted cellphones to a cellphone recycling company. CKA chose to include cellphones in its recycling programs to increase the amount of money that collection groups can raise, thereby increasing the popularity of its programs.

But as someone like Lee Anne Emig illustrates, you don't have to be a company or organization to start a collection program. You can just be a concerned animal lover wanting to benefit a neighborhood rescue.

To get started with your own collection program, contact CKA Associates at 1-866-301-7027, or visit their website at: http://www.cashforcritters.com/

Just a few examples of other people and groups that have started collection programs:

Animal Compassion Network
Capital Area Animal Welfare Society
Castaway Animal Rescue Effort
Maine Animal Coalition
Northwoods Humane Society
Heaven on Earth Society for Animals
Highland Animal Shelter