Teens are up against the worst summer job market in nearly 80 years, fighting just to get a shift at an ice cream shop. One 11-year-old is taking matters into his own hands and offering to clean his neighbors’ trash cans for $10.
Once his school broke up for the summer break in May, Ashton Meyer began knocking on the doors of local residents of East Gwillimbury, Canada, to ask whether he could clear out their trash—and documenting each knock on Instagram and TikTok.
“My name is Ashton, and I’m doing a service to clean out all of your bins—that includes your garbage, your green bin and your recycling,” he says on camera, door after door.
Now, he has 40 clients; he’s become a social media sensation, racking up more than 111,000 followers on Instagram in just two months; And as the leaves turn brown, he hopes to expand to leaf raking.
“I want to be an entrepreneur who owns his own business,” Meyer tells Fortune.
And he tells kids looking to copy him they need to lower their prices and get comfortable with rejection. After all, as you can see in his videos, Meyer gets turned down far more than he gets hired. But he hands over his number anyway, smiling: “Take it, and if you need me you can call me,” he tells one skeptical neighbor. “I’ll be here all summer.”
It’s a mindset he’s happy to pass on to other kids chasing a summer income. “The first no is the hardest. Keep going,” Meyer says. “Try and find a need that no one is filling and see if you can do it. Ask your neighbors if they need any help—maybe it’s bin cleaning or weeding or watering their plants.”
“Offer a good price when you are a kid because you are still learning,” he adds.
While teens can’t land a babysitting job, this 11-year-old built a business—with a little help from mom and dad
Like many kids, Meyer just wanted a bit of extra pocket money and was mulling over what he could do to earn it himself.
His dad came up with the idea of taking the neighbors’ trash cans out on garbage day and cleaning them.
“But I had the idea of going door to door to see if he could drum up more business for cleaning garbage bins,” Meyer says, while adding that his mom encouraged him to film it all.
After all, his summer job options are limited—and not just because of his young age.
Thanks to persistent inflation, the soaring cost of living, and AI making employers cautious about hiring (and everyday people cautious of spending), entry-level part-time jobs like lifeguarding and retail assistants are disappearing. People can’t even afford a babysitter right now. For teenagers, it’s leaving them with the worst summer jobs market since 1948.
But looking forward, whatever with the job market, Meyer plans to keep up his new side hustle—even once school picks back up in September.
“I will definitely keep up washing bins as the weather allows,” he says. “My plan is to work after school and Saturdays.”
Once the weather cools, he plans to use the changing seasons to his advantage: “I also want to do leaf raking and snowplowing during the colder months.”
Ashton Meyer’s building a career he loves and inspiring future bin cleaners
If the babysitting jobs are gone by the time Meyer’s old enough to want one, he probably won’t be looking for it anyway. For now, at least, he’s loving his new gig.
“I enjoy everything about my job. Going door to door is fun because I get to meet new people,” Meyer says. “It might be weird, but I actually enjoy cleaning the garbage bins. It’s satisfying to see them totally clean.”
So far, Meyer’s made a grand total of $700 (about $500 USD) and counting. But Fortune has spoken to plenty of successful business owners who started just as small and just as young. Take Chase Gallagher, he was 12 when he started mowing lawns in Chester County, Pa., for $35 a pop back in 2013. Over a decade later, his landscaping company employs 10 people and pulled in more than $1.5 million in revenue last year.
Plus, between his bin-cleaning business and the six-figure Instagram following, Meyer’s already got what most side hustles take years to build: customers and an audience.
And he’s even inspiring a new wave of bin cleaning entrepreneurs: “I’m mind blown, it’s been so crazy, and I feel grateful,” Meyer says of his newfound Instagram fame. “We have heard from people all around the world. Many parents have shown the video to their kids and it has inspired them to start businesses, which is so cool.”
