The Recycling Myth: How “Half” is Better than 90%

123JUNK recycles or donates about half of what it hauls, which means that our crews are directly recycling and donating approximately half of the volume in a given truckload of items. However, in a lot of cases in the Northern Virginia area, companies will claim percentages as high as 90%.

How do they pull that off?

It’s basically a shell game. In Fairfax County, for instance, a company can go so far as claiming to be “zero landfill.” That means they aren’t dumping anything, right?

Well, no.

Fairfax County’s transfer station sends all of its traditional refuse to the Covanta Energy plant in Lorton, where it is incinerated to produce electricity for Fairfax County. Since about 90% of the volume of the rubbish is eliminated during incineration, many companies use those numbers as their “recycling” numbers.

It’s certainly a form of recycling, but it isn’t sustainable, and it certainly doesn’t show any commitment to environmental stewardship. According to the rules of this shell game, 123JUNK could claim numbers as high as 95 percent!

That’s why our proprietary 1-2-3 disposal process is so significant. No matter where we work, 123JUNK can maintain our standard of genuinely rerouting from the landfill about half of the items we take. We want to keep your junk from becoming garbage, and incinerating it certainly doesn’t help us to achieve that goal. The moment your items get dropped on a transfer station floor, the practical life cycle of those items has ended.

123JUNK also implements flex storage/drop-off points so we can streamline our donation process. That allows us to keep our price down while also keeping our donation percentages up. We have similar setups with third-party recyclers. We put a great deal of effort into creating processes that help our environment and our customers—not just our bottom line.

A company with integrity should be happy to answer any questions you have about what they do, so the next time you call a junk removal company, be sure to ask them the tough questions. Ask them about the volume of their trucks, so you can make a fair price comparison. Ask them about their disposal processes, because it’s important to know where your stuff is going! We’re confident that with a conscious, educated approach, you will find that 123JUNK provides the best value and peace of mind that the industry can offer.