Gladwin, Michigan 11-year-old turns trash duty into small business

Meet the 11-year-old turning trash cans into cash in his Michigan town.

GLADWIN, Mich. — While many kids his age are busy playing video games, 11-year-old Greyson McPherson is riding his bike around Gladwin, building a business one trash can at a time.

Greyson and his father, Scott McPherson, said it started with mowing lawns. “It’s really because of my dad,” Greyson said. “Because when I started mowing, like he started teaching me how to mow the lawn, and I said I want to mow other people’s lawns. And then he helped me. He got a business and they told me, like, I should do people’s trash cans so that I can make money”.

Now, every week, Greyson earns $2 from each customer by taking trash cans to the road the night before pickup and returning them once the garbage is collected. “Most people’s lawns,” he said. “I take them up to the road the day before the trash comes. And then when the trash comes, I take it back to their house, and then I get my $2”.

So far, Greyson has six customers and is trying to expand. “I’m trying to get my friends to ask their parents so I can do their trash cans,” he said.

Scott said the idea took off after he posted on Facebook about his son’s efforts. “He started on our lawn last fall and he wanted to make some more money,” Scott said. “Then he had a couple other lawns in the neighborhood, and then we moved into town. I had just seen the idea on a reel when I was surfing through one day, and I kind of pitched the idea to him and made a post … and it kind of took off”.

For Greyson, it’s about more than money. “All I really want to do is help a lot of people, cause some people can’t do that much stuff and I just don’t want them to feel like they don’t belong because they can’t do much stuff,” he said.

Scott said he believes letting kids work for what they want is important. “It makes him just a great person,” he said. “Buy them something, doesn’t take much effort, but teaching them to invest in themselves is more important than we really understand. Even if it’s a simple lemonade stand or picking up sticks … it does a big service for the community. It also does a big service to teach the child or young teen responsibility”.

Greyson uses some of his earnings to buy Legos and Minecraft gear, but he’s also saving for a mini bike. He said he enjoys the work because it keeps him active. “I can ride my bike around town and get a little bit of exercise for football, cause we’re doing four parts. It’s really good. It’s really fun”.

As Greyson balances his new business with sixth grade and football practice, his father says he couldn’t be prouder. “There’s not enough kids learning how to do like electrician or air conditioning or being a plumber,” Scott said. “That is so important. A lot of young people forgot about the trades. We recently just bought our house and it’s quite a fixer-upper, and I’ve had the opportunity to teach Grayson how to replant things and we’ve done some light carpentry, and it’s been really rewarding”.

For now, Greyson says he’s just happy helping his neighbors. “Yeah, I have a lot of fun,” he said