Tag: junk removal Maryland

recycling bin sitting on desk in an office

Does Your Company Have an Office Recycling Program?

Posted on | by Linda Barrett

April’s Earth Day reminds us of one of the reasons we started 123JUNK: to keep as much out of the local landfills as possible. One of the ways you can do this in your company (other than using us) is to implement an office recycling program.

Tips for Creating an Effective Office Recycling Program

Go Paperless

  • Instead of printing hard copies of documents, get into the habit of saving them to your hard drive. Email documents when possible.
  • Do your banking online and share documents via e-billing and online document sharing software.

Save Resources

  • Save paper by printing two-sided documents when you need a hard copy.
  • Save ink by using a small font on documents. Set the printer for its “draft” ink savings setting.
  • Reuse file folders
  • Use the backs of discarded papers as note pads

Purchase Recycled Materials

There are a number of items composed of recycled content you can purchase for your office use: 

  • Reams of paper (look for 100% post-consumer recycled content)
  • Clipboards in 100% recycled wood (hardboard) or 60% post-consumer recycled plastic
  • Pens & Pencils, some are made from recycled cardboard, wood, newspaper or even old money
  • Dry erase and white boards, with refillable 100% aluminum markers
  • Post-It notes
  • Manilla mailing envelopes
  • Clear tape made from 100% recycled content
  • Recycled paper clips (use paper clips instead of staples)
  • Office furniture and protective floor mats can also be purchased with recycled content

Create Recycling Bins

Business materials that can be recycled, according to the EPA, include plastic, steel, paper, corrugated paper, solid fiber boxes, and industrial paperboard.

  • Set up paper recycling bins near office desk clusters and next to copy machines
  • Create a recycling center in the company’s kitchen or break area for food packaging, metals and acceptable plastics

Train Your Employees

Even though you have an office recycling program in place, are your employees utilizing it? Make it easy for them to participate, and show the benefits of recycling.

  • Educate employees on your office recycling program
  • Create a “green team”
  • Make a list of what types of items can be recycled. If you don’t know whether an item can be recycled, use a “recyclepedia.”
  • Place your recycling bins and signage in prominent locations
  • Group bins and have separate bins for each material type
  • Create a “recyclable” supply room in your office where employees can place items they no longer need or use, and pick up items they need

Hold a Recycling Challenge

  • Create recycling contests with rewards
  • Develop a monthly recycling goal; change the goal each month
  • Offer recognition levels for recycling achievements
  • Have employees participate in or volunteer for an offsite recycling event

Special Considerations

Almost everything in the office can be included in your office recycling program, however many of these items cannot be tossed into your recycling bin. They must be delivered to an e-waste recycling center, or in some cases, returned to the manufacturer.

  • Electronics. Pretty much anything with a cord or a plug, including computers, printers, copiers, tablets, telephones, external hard drives, USB cords, monitors, etc. can be recycled through an e-waste center or donated.
  • Toner cartridges and printer ribbons. Most often, these can be returned to the manufacturer for recycling or refill.
  • Cell phones. When a phone becomes outdated, it still has value. Cell phones can be returned to the manufacturer via a mail-in recycling program or donated to an organization as part of a fund-raising drive. Otherwise, it can go to an e-waste recycling center.
  • Batteries. Batteries contain metals that can be recycled, however, they also contain chemicals that can harm the environment.
  • CDs and DVDs. Since we’re using the cloud most often nowadays for our documents, CDs and DVDs are no longer popular. As they contain #7 polycarbonate plastic, and can release toxic gases if burned, these cannot be tossed in the trash or recycle bin.
  • Fluorescent bulbs. Because they contain mercury, fluorescent bulbs should not be throw into the trash.

Why Recycle?

  • To reduce landfill waste
  • To help the environment
  • To create jobs
  • To save energy, water, trees and other resources
  • To save money in office expenses

Office Recycling Through 123JUNK

Now that you’re collecting all these great office items for recycling, it’s time to contact 123JUNK. We’ll be glad to pick up these items in our big red trucks and deliver them to the appropriate recycling or donation centers. It’s part of our 1-2-3 Donate-Recycle-Dispose process.

And if you have items that can be recycled back into the community, like office desks, chairs or partitions, we’ll pick those up too and donate them on your behalf to our charity partners who resell these items to raise money for their causes like preventing homelessness. We’ll provide you with a receipt for tax purposes. Do this and you’ll not only get rid of items you don’t want, you’ll help both the community and the environment. Add that to your company challenge!

When you’re ready, contact 123JUNK. You’ll love our all-inclusive pricing and our stellar customer experience.

local-junk-removal

Why It’s Important to Support a Local Junk Removal Business

Posted on | by Linda Barrett

The year 2020 taught us many lessons. One of the most important lessons was that without your local support, your local businesses won’t survive. Here’s why supporting your local junk removal business is so important.

Local Businesses Create Jobs

Small businesses create approximately 1.9 million jobs annually, according to the Small Business Administration, and they account for almost all the net new job creation. In addition, small businesses—those with fewer than 500 employees—comprise 99.9% of all the companies in the United States, and employ about half of all U.S. employees.

Related: How Many Small Business are in the U.S.

Local Businesses Support Your Neighborhoods

On average, 67 cents of every dollar you spend at a local small business stays in the local community. In addition, the small business reinvests 23 cents of each dollar into other local businesses, reports SCORE.

Local Business Owners Support Your Community

Local businesses are run by people who live in your community, and help to make impactful decisions concerning your community. Their influence has a direct effect on your quality of life.

You Receive Personal Service

Local business owners are dedicated to providing exceptional customer service. We have to in order to compete with the national brands. Because we know and understand our local customers, we can tailor our services to what they want and need. For example, at 123JUNK, we actually pick up the phone and talk to customers rather than have them go through an automated process. It’s those little touches that make us different and provide you with a better overall experience.

You Support Entrepreneurship

It’s the entrepreneurs who fuel innovation and the economy. Our owner started in 2008 at age 23 by buying a small landscaping truck to help people move items they no longer wanted to keep. Today, 123JUNK employs dozens of people and maintains a sizeable fleet of trucks—some of the largest in the industry!

123JUNK Supports Your Local Charities

We have developed charity partners including Habitat for Humanity, the Humane Society, Passion for Community and A Wider Circle who rely on our donations to fund their programs. When you schedule a pickup from 123JUNK, we’ll sort through your items for things to donate, like household goods and furniture. People enjoy helping others, and you’ll get a real feeling of connection by helping to make the world a better place with your donations.

123JUNK is a Local Junk Removal Business

We sometimes hear that our clients are surprised when they find out 123JUNK is locally owned and operated. They think we’re much larger than we are. No, in fact, we’re a small business covering just Northern Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. We worked hard during the pandemic to make sure that we kept our employees working and our customers satisfied, and your support helped us to survive.

For Local Junk Removal in VA, MD and DC, Contact 123JUNK

We make it a point to serve and support our clients and communities where we live. When you need local junk removal, appliance or furniture removal, or cleanout services, contact 123JUNK.

Maryland flag

123JUNK is Taking Over Maryland!!

Posted on | by chad

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but 123JUNK is really growing in Maryland, especially around the I-495 and I-270 corridor. From a company starting in Virginia in 2008, we’ve expanded our territory quite a bit. I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw one of our big red trucks on the road today.

When we opened our Maryland location a couple of years ago, we thought it might take some time to grow and become known, but boy-oh-boy, we were wrong. The phone hasn’t stopped ringing since. Marylanders heartily welcomed 123JUNK as their junk removal company of choice in cities including Bethesda, Potomac, Chevy Chase, Silver Spring, Gaithersburg, Montgomery Village, Rockville and more.

From the feedback and letters we receive, Marylanders appreciate our level of professionalism and attention to detail, not to mention the courteous service, from the first phone call to the last pickup. They even tell us they’re surprised that we’re a local company and not a franchised system. We must be doing something right!

Perhaps it’s our core values that keep us on track. When we founded the business we wanted to run it as if we were the customers. We thought long and hard about how we would want to be treated as customers and make it a point to train everyone at our company with the same philosophy. We want you to have a safe and enjoyable experience with us every time.

Thank you Maryland for supporting 123JUNK. We’re glad to be part of your community. 

realtor

We Love Real Estate Agents and They Love Us!

Posted on | by chad

Some of our favorite people are real estate agents. Why? Because we need each other.

It’s nice to feel needed, and when you’re called upon to help, it gives such a wonderful sense of satisfaction to know your talents, skills and resources are helpful to someone else.

Realtors work diligently to learn their field so they can help their clients. And one of their skills is knowing how to better position a home for quick sale.

On our end, 123JUNK helps Realtors with the staging process by professionally removing unwanted items from homes around Northern Virginia and Maryland. We have wonderful relationships with many, many Realtors, who love our quick turnaround and diligence about protecting the property, and we often get our jobs by referral.

Stage Your Home for Quick Sale

One of the best strategies to sell a home quickly and for the most money is to stage it, a process that includes decluttering, depersonalizing and packing up.

Buyers want to envision themselves living in the home, and often they are looking for more space. Toss out items you no longer need, clear spaces and surfaces, and remove any personal or personalized items from view. Pack up and put into storage what you won’t need in the next several months, after all, you’ll be moving soon anyway. Be sure to clear cabinets and closets as well, as buyers will be looking there too.

With minimal furniture and belongings, your home will show beautifully. Your Realtor will go through your home with you, pointing out what should stay and what should go. They may also move furniture around to create groupings and improve flow.

123JUNK Will Take Your Stuff Away

No doubt, you will be getting rid of items. They might be things you don’t use any more, broken furniture, or outdated clothing, for example. 123JUNK will remove the items for you and either repurpose, recycle or trash them. You don’t have to worry that your grandmother’s end tables will be disposed of. We work with generous charitable partners who repurpose and recycle usable items back into the community for someone else to enjoy.

Real estate agents need us to provide professional junk removal, and we need them to provide a consistent customer base. It’s nice to feel needed. If you or a realtor you know need us, please call. We’d love to work with you!

Realtor Testimonials

railroad-pic

Trash or Treasure?

Posted on | by chad

Working at 123JUNK, we never know what we’re going to find when we get the call to haul junk from someone’s residence. Most of the time, it’s the normal items, like worn-out furniture, old appliances, or clutter. But sometimes, even we’re surprised!

Here are some of our unusual finds that we’ve come across over the years from around Northern Virginia and Maryland.

25 Loads

One of biggest jobs to date was the removal of 25 truckloads of clothing and newspapers from a residence.

No Vroom

We were called to remove nine motorcycles from a split level home that were located in the lower level. We’re not sure how the clients got the motorcycles into the home, but we had to remove them up the flight of stairs. Since they were non-functional, they were taken to the recycling facility.

If I Only Had a Brain

One client had amassed a rather large collection of animal skulls that was no longer wanted or needed.

Read All About It

Another client wanted us to remove about five thousand comic books and catalogs, hundreds of pairs of shoes, and thousands upon thousands of CDs, store-bought and mostly unopened. These were ideal items to donate.

Eek!

In some situations, as we’re removing junk, we sometimes uncover the remains of various animals, like snakes, rodents, and even cats.

Ka-ching

Our favorite find has to be the $1,500 in scattered coins that were uncovered once the clutter and trash were removed from a home. The homeowner allowed us to keep  all coins that we could find.

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere

We once did a job that consisted of 500 bottles of unopened wine. Some was bitter, but much of it was aged to perfection.

One man’s trash..

Very often items you no longer need or want can be repurposed for use with others, and we’re glad to assist to help both you and our community. As the adage goes, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

Please call us when you need to clear out or clean up. 

123JUNK-Fleet

We’ve expanded our fleet

Posted on | by chad

We’re so excited! We have new additions to the family! Not only are we rapidly growing our staff, but we’ve also expanded our fleet. This in the midst of what is considered the “slow season” in the junk removal business.

123JUNK is growing fast, and to keep up with demand, we need more and more trucks. So we’ve invested in acquiring some of the largest trucks in the junk removal industry.

 

What this means for you is even better service:

  • With the bigger trucks (560 cubic feet) we can get the job done in fewer trips, which translates to less time on site and more free time for our clients.
  • With more trucks on the road, we can service more neighbors throughout northern Virginia and Maryland.
  • We’re more available when you need us. 

The perfect time to call 123JUNK is when you need items removed from your home or commercial property. Our pickup can be as little as one item, or as big as an entire houseful.

Did You Know We Name Our Trucks?

We think of our trucks as members of the family, therefore we give them names and refer to them by their names. Our current names are “recycled” from presidential names….you may have the SS John Quincy Adams at your house… or perhaps the SS Andrew Jackson. Ask our junk removal specialist just “who” is hauling away your junk.

For presidential service in junk removal, contact 123JUNK at 703-400-7645 or through our website.