Is it a junk graveyard or a gold mine? Depending on what you take, recycling centers can pay out big bucks to their customers for helping Mother Earth.

Cycle Systems in Broadway says people have brought in swing sets, rusty bicycles and appliances in exchange for money. They accept anything metal but other centers will pay you for bringing in paper, cardboard and plastics and usually pay by the pound.

For a pound of aluminum cans, you could get 70 cents or more.

"You can go ahead and get paid for it. Instead of taking it to the landfill and it will just sit there for hundreds of years, you could bring it in here and feel good about knowing it's going to be melted down and made into something new instead of it just going and rusting into the earth," says Cycle Systems Northern Regional Manager Pete Hristov.

The stuff brought to cycle systems gets melted and remade into construction goods, which eventually become part of our buildings and homes.