Rock, Paper, Scissors: Winning With Recycling

There are a variety of things we dispose of that can be recycled. Some are more common than others such as metals and paper waste. Oh - and waste concrete!

The downside is that so much of these materials never make it to recycling facilities and end up in our landfills instead. And that's a losing proposition.

Recycling is certainly not a new thing to any of us. In fact, if you were born after 1970, odds are you've never known a world where recycling was not a normal part of life. 

As a nation, we've been promoting a culture of recycling for over five decades now. For many, it has been a part of our lifestyle for as long as we can remember. However, we've still got a long way to go.

Rock, Paper, Scissors - Really? 

Most adults remember the childhood game of "Rock, Paper, Scissors" for determining who's going to go first and who gets something everyone else wants, too. 

But what's this have to do with recycling?

It's a simple way to think of some of the most common material for recycling aside from glass and plastic: concrete and masonry, paper and cardboard waste, and junk metal.

Rock

Waste concrete and masonry is incredibly versatile and reusable. But too often, many small contractors and homeowner DIY-types simply put this material in a dumpster bound for a landfill. 

This is unfortunate since the largest part of construction and demolition (C&D) material is concrete, which makes up about 70 percent of C&D waste material before recycling, according to the EPA.

In addition, concrete rubble is almost completely recyclable. The process separates any trash, wood and paper and removes metals such as rebar, using magnets and other devices,  all of which are recycled separately.

And, on top of all this, recycling your concrete waste means you can avoid hauling costs and landfill disposal fees.

Paper

Approximately 44.2 million tons of paper and paperboard were recycled in 2017 for a recycling rate of 65.9 percent, according to the EPA, which was among the highest compared to other materials in MSW. That would mean that we produced roughly 67 million tons of waste paper and paperboard that year. 

And, to our credit, we are succeeding in recycling almost two thirds of what we generate. That's impressive, but it still means that over 23 million tons of paper and cardboard waste ends up in our landfills or gets sent somewhere else.

The one other downside of paper recycling is that paper cannot be recycled indefinitely.

An article at The Balance Small Business notes, 

"With every recycling, fibers become shorter. After being processed five to seven times, the fibers become too short for the production of new paper, requiring the addition of new fibers."

The upside is that the reuse life-cycle of paper is incredibly long compared to plastics, for example.

Scissors

Okay, so some scissors are made of plastic, but you get the idea!

Generally speaking, scrap metals are divided into two basic categories: ferrous and nonferrous. Ferrous metal contains iron. (Not sure what yours is? If a magnet sticks to it, it is.) Nonferrous metals are metals that do not contain iron.

OSHA describes metal recycling this way,

"Metal scrap recycling, also called secondary metal processing, is a large industry that processes, in the U.S. alone, 56 million tons of scrap iron and steel (including 10 million tons of scrap automobiles), 1.5 million tons of scrap copper, 2.5 million tons of scrap aluminum, 1.3 million tons of scrap lead, 300,000 tons of scrap zinc and 800,000 tons of scrap stainless steel, and smaller quantities of other metals, on a yearly basis."

The bottom line is that almost every metal can be recycled and some types of metal have so much value in the scrap metal market that they become targets for metal thieves.  (Think "catalytic converters")

Recyclables: What's In Your House?

Whether you're in the midst of a long-delayed "spring cleaning" that didn't get started until August, or have a large amount of junk items to get rid of now, consider the recyclables.

This can be the more obvious things such as old bottles, stacks of newspapers, or your aluminum cans. But it can also be your old, broken-down appliances or furniture.

Strictly speaking, most everything we throw out can be recycled. Or reused or repurposed.

And if you have old concrete and masonry, large amounts of waste paper and cardboard, or metal items and equipment, think "recycling." 

(Not to mention any glass and plastic!)

Our Recycling Commitment to Customers and the Planet

Junk King is not one of those faceless corporate entities that merely post obligatory slogans about being environmentally responsible. At Junk King, we are wholly committed to recycling as much of the junk we pick up as possible.

In fact, we founded Junk King in 2005 as the first recycling-based junk removal operation. To this end, we've designed our junk removal franchise to operate around what we call our "Warehouse Recycling Hub."

North America’s Greenest Junk Removal Service

Can It Be Recycled? We Can Take It!

There is a truly simple and efficient option and that's calling Junk King.

Junk King provides professional junk hauling services to remove any and all of your junk. And this includes anything made with plastic and even your excess trash and garbage. We even have the equipment and man power to remove a large fridge and other appliances up a small stairway or down your basement steps out through the garage. 

Whatever your junk consists of, Junk King can help you get it out of the way. We provide an eco-friendly junk removal service to help you get rid of any unwanted junk, large trash items, or any old appliances.

Our professional and insured appliance disposal team will show up at your home or office; we call 15 minutes before we arrive on site and we’ll give you a free estimate based on how much room your junk takes up in our truck. You point and we haul your unwanted items into our junk removal trucks, with no hidden fees.

It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3. You make an appointment by booking online above or by calling 1.888.888.JUNK (5865).