Reason 1: You Risk Fraud and Theft

If you are surprised to see this on the top of our list, you are about to be surprised further: everything you throw out can legally be searched through. In a Supreme Court case years ago (California vs. Greenwood) they made the legality of trash-diving real (prior to this it was rather fuzzy). However, the Supreme Court’s case only made their opinion in regards to trash that is left outside or on a curb, without a designated spot, so to speak. Thus, dumpsters and donation boxes were meant to be protected during this ruling, and they were for a time. 

However, in 2001 a book called Evasion was published by CrimethInc., a decentralized collective of autonomous chapters (free agents), publishing widely read articles, books, and other publications. This book would end up hitting the reading world by storm, sparking intense debates about human and civil rights to resources, and the things that some people will do to survive while living under the radar in the United States. Evasion today is known as the book that popularized dumpster diving—which, despite the Supreme Court’s protective opinion on it, is difficult to police (and has questionable moral and societal obligations attached to it). 

If you choose to utilize a free junk removal offer, it is important to keep in mind that they could be taking your trash and junk off your hands—but you don’t necessarily know where that stuff is going. In the best-case scenario, the free service is honest and recycles as much of your junk as possible (like Junk King), but in the worst-case scenario, they could go through your trash and find your information—they could even be unaware of dumpster divers in the area, and then your information can be taken that way too, making you a target for fraud and theft.

Choosing to use a free junk removal service is the best of a bad situation; before you commit to the risks that can come as a result of this service, make sure to do your research on all of your options. It is always safer (and easier) to choose city-made services over free offers—especially because you have a right to use them as a city of Atlanta resident. 

Reason 2: No Guarantee of Quality Services or Materials

When you think of a junk hauling and removal service, you likely don’t immediately think of high-quality customer service, let alone high-quality materials that professionals would tout as being necessary. No matter who your free junk removal service comes from, it is important to do your research into the company and its culture before you commit to them. They may be given a 5-star rating on a review site for simply having a free junk hauling service, but if the rest of the reviews are filled with 3-stars and 2-stars, consider if they are really the ones you want to use. Additionally, because they are providing a service for you, at no cost—there is no protection for the homeowner or business owner. This puts the client in line for potential abuse, whether that is guilt-based, intimidation-based, or a haphazard removal process that ends up costing you more in repairs than it would have to have professionals do it. 

Additionally, because the junk removal service would be free, there is only really a societal expectation to have protective materials on hand for the removal process. This is why it is considered acceptable for companies to drop off roll-away dumpsters on the street or on a driveway, heedless of a property manager’s or homeowner’s repairs that may be needed afterward. For example, a commercial-sized dumpster is usually huge, dirty, smelly, and an eye-sore—then, when it comes time to pick it up, if the company driver didn’t protect the driveway, the dumpster could come up and leave behind deep scratch marks, stripes of black soiled substances that have to be cleaned, or it could even end up raking large chunks of concrete up at weak points. 

It is for these (and other) reasons that free junk removal services don’t really exist. When you pay for a junk hauling and trash disposal service, you are paying partially for the guaranteed quality of the customer service; and when you pay you are also ensuring that you are entitled to protective measures—whether that be full gear PPE or just some 2×4(s) on your driveway to protect it. 

Reason 3: It’s Not Worth the Time or Effort to Haul it Yourself

If you are still thinking about accepting a free junk removal offer, you should at the very least make sure that you know what the service is actually providing to you. Is the service only providing you with a dumpster for a set amount of time or is it providing you with a truck and crew to assist you in the removal? Most of the time, the former is the ‘free’ version of the removal whereas a fee comes attached to the latter. If your service is offering to use their dumpster, you should consider if the extra time and effort to haul everything is worth it to you. It is particularly important to make sure that regardless of the service you are using, you give the crews (and yourself) clearance to work in the space. Rubbish clearance can be difficult in hoarder or old homes, but making sure that we and you can get through the property safely is a big deal. 

How do you clear up rubbish in a house if you need removal assistance? As far as rubbish clearance is concerned, the bare minimum we ask is that there is a four-foot path through which our crews can maneuver. If for some reason you do not think (or know that) there is not enough space to achieve this clearance, you should be calling on professionals for assistance to help you maneuver through the process of the removal safely. It won’t be worth it to call on a junk removal service, even a free one unless you are able to complete your goals for the removal. 

Alternatively, if you are not in dire straits, and you are looking to just get more knowledge about the best ways to clean up your home, consider searching the internet for phrases like ‘how to clear up rubbish in home’, or ‘affordable rubbish removal near me’. For even better results add-in ‘+North Atlanta’ to the end of your search and you’ll receive a smaller pool, local to North Atlanta and the surrounding Metro area.

Reason 4: There is no Such Thing as Free Stuff

You might have heard this phrase before—maybe it was muttered by your skeptical mother, pulling you along a store-front street as she avoided the eyes of predatory salespeople. Or maybe it came from your father, exhausted after working a shift and only half watching the television, probably in response to a commercial that claimed: “get everything free for a limited time!”

No matter where you first heard this adage, the truth in it has never lost its strength. In the case of free junk removal services, there is no such thing as the removal being truly free; in some way or form, there are consequences for the removal. Sometimes those consequences relate directly to tax breaks offered as a government incentive to meet a policy requirement, sometimes those consequences are your identity being put up for sale on the Black Market’s Silk Road. 

Even in terms of what happens to the trash and junk after it’s taken away is not free. If the junk is able to be recycled, the removal company will necessarily pay for the recycling of those materials—but many companies may claim that nothing is ‘salvageable’ and chose to ignore this environmental obligation. Meanwhile, for those companies that don’t recycle, most of their hauls end up in the local landfills, costing the environment more. 

If you are wanting to look at your options locally for an affordable but professional removal company, don’t try something like ‘free garbage pick up near me’, instead try ‘budget-friendly trash pick up +North Atlanta’. 

Reason 5: The Service Might Stop Working

One of the hitherto unmentioned issues with relying on free removal services is that they will inevitably stop working or promoting this offer. There are many reasons why a free removal promotion would stop; it could be that the promotion was a sort of ‘sample’ service, and so now that the promotion is done the company banks that you will choose them again regardless of their prices because they are considered familiar. It could be that the company was caught without the proper protections and preventative measures that they should be taking for their clients. This would result in the shut down of the business, however, not just the ending of their promotion. 

All in all, humans are interesting creatures, as we are driven to repetitive service providers based on their familiarity, despite there being possibly better options out in the world. Junk King would only suggest that you do all of the research possible to pick the best service options for your needs. 

Contact Junk King North Atlanta today to get a Big Red Truck or MINI dumpster tomorrow; when you choose to move with Junk King, junk hauling is as simple as 1, 2, 3—just point and the junk is gone! There are three ways to contact us and four ways to get a quote:

• Call us at (706) 247-7513 to speak with a real customer representative, from here either choose to get your quote in a few minutes over the phone, or ask to schedule an in-person no-obligation assessment of your property or junk. 
• Alternatively, text us pictures of your junk at (737) 888-5865 and get a response with your estimate within 24 hours. You can also use this method to make multiple ball-park estimates. 
• Or choose to stay online and utilize the Junk King pricing calculator to explore all of your options. 

Do you have a pile of cardboard laying around? Get rid of it now!

If you’re on the internet, chances are good that you’ve surfed through e-commerce stores. Stores like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and others all take advantage of technology to provide goods to customers via the internet. Of course, if you choose to order a physical item, that item must then be shipped to you—and what’s the cheapest way to ship items? Cardboard, of course! 

It’s estimated that Amazon alone ships around 608 million packages in a year, which equates to around 1,600,000 packages a day. A majority of those packages are cardboard; the material is versatile and holds up well even in short periods of time in poor weather.

This means that cardboard boxes are commonly saved for a later date by the consumer—while cardboard ‘slips’, separators, and dividers are commonly immediately thrown into the garbage or, at the best of times, the recycling bin. That’s a lot of wasted material that could have been reused. 

If you don’t know the types of cardboard or when to recycle it, you can very easily become overrun with cardboard products—which may result in needlessly throwing the material out in the garbage, simply because there is a lot of it. Luckily, recycling cardboard in Atlanta can be done easily, quickly, and cheaply. Many people recycle cardboard in Atlanta, GA by taking their used boxes to the local recycling facilities, but there is an easier way. 

Instead of throwing it all away, give Junk King a call—we’ll pick it up, take it away, and we’ll even responsibly recycle it for you. Just search for ‘cardboard recycling near me’ to read more about Junk King, and if you’re wondering how to recycle cardboard, read on to learn more. 

Different Types of Cardboard That You Can Recycle in Atlanta

There aren’t very many types of cardboard in the world, and there are even fewer different types of cardboard that can be recycled. Most cardboard is created out of paper wastes, but it can also be created out of fibers tree pulp. Some cardboard can have a glossy finish, while others may have multiple layers which makes them stronger and more durable than other options. Usually, all of the different types of cardboard can be separated into one of two categories:

Corrugated cardboard is the type with an inner layer of wavy cardboard, making it composed of three layers that are durable and thick. Items usually shipped in this are fragile and so these boards come in a range of thicknesses. This is the type great for box forts and castles. 

Paperboard/Chipboard is the most common cardboard available. It consists of a single layer and is fragile in comparison to corrugated. It is more stable than a piece of paper, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for forts or castles. Most companies use them for single-use products like breakfast cereals or bulk packaging. 

Additionally, those who are in framing manufacturing may consider mat board to be a type of cardboard. These boards are fibers tree pulp that has been boiled, dyed, and pressed into flat and (usually) highly durable boards (of multiple plies). You wouldn’t want a fort or castle made out of this, not only are the sheets heavy, they can be very sharp when cut with machines or a mat cutter. 

Corrugated and paper cardboards are really the best types to recycle because they break down quickly and can be reused just as fast. Since they are all made from trees, recycling them means you save them from going to the landfill and rotting, but you’re also saving more trees from being cut down to keep up with packaging demand. 

Of course, not all cardboard, corrugated or paper, can be recycled—just most of it. For example, cardboard that is rotted, soiled, or wet cannot be recycled. The fibers from the board turn into mush inside of the recycling machines and can halt an entire facility until the issue is fixed.

This is why weekly trash services which are single-stream must go through all of the trash they receive for disposal—meanwhile, dual-stream trash services go through all of their recycling bins in order to prevent harming the machines. 

If you aren’t confident in choosing what cardboard items should be recycled and what should be thrown away, consider if the board is relatively clean or if it has been in a rather clean, dry area. Each piece of cardboard, being made out of paper essentially, has the potential to rot from the inside out because of the porous nature of trees—so if you don’t know if a box is considered clean or not, it’s important to find out.

The easiest way to do that is to have an expert do it for you. Additionally, if you’re not sure about how to get your cardboard to a facility, and you don’t want to call a moving team for it, you can always search for ‘recycled cardboard near me’ for the top-rated recycling options in your area. 

Cardboard Boxes vs. Greenhouse Plastic – Which is the Best Material for Your Needs?

The environmentally conscious person may say ‘well, we can do better than recycling cardboard; we can just use plastic instead.’ While this may work in some instances, holistically switching all packaging to reusable plastics would only create a different problem in regard to fossil fuels vs. deforestation. 

For example, in order to create 1kg of cardboard, there needs to be three times the amount of wood, water, and electricity. When using recycled materials to made cardboard, water and energy can be reduced by half, but the base wood amount remains the same.

In contrast, in order to create 1kg of plastic, there must be double the amount of petroleum, water, and electricity. Further, even when using recycled plastics, only the energy consumption is reduced—the water and gas remain the same necessarily. 

Thus we see the trade-off—do we end chopping down trees in favor of using more fossil fuels? Which is better plastic or cardboard boxes for storage? It’s hard to say what the right choice is from this perspective. Instead, it might be easier to view which material to use in terms of what meets your needs. 

For example, you wouldn’t use a cardboard box for long-term valuable storage. Your belongings would be better saved in a plastic bin with a locking lid. By that same token, you wouldn’t need a plastic bin for something like cereal (unless you really like cereal). The same goes for things around the house, cardboard boxes are great to temporarily store things—but you’re going to want a plastic bin for anything of value or long-term storage/organization. 

Manufacturers have a similar issue with the cardboard vs. plastic debate. Plastic ships better than cardboard, but it costs more for that added security—and then the plastics need to wait until someone comes to collect them or until they are shipped out again. 

When thinking about greenhouse plastic vs. recycled cardboard, make surer to pick the one that suits your needs the best. Anything that is non-valuable and will be stored for a short amount of time will call for cardboard—but anything else, it’s safer and easier long-term to use plastic. 

Why You Should Recycle Cardboard & What You Can Do with it After – Zero Waste Tips

Clearly, there are plenty of uses for cardboard for the modern person. Often, people receive packages from eCommerce stores and then keep the cardboard boxes for use around the home. Storage and organization can make great use of the excess material. However, if you didn’t want to use recycled, used cardboard for that stuff, what can you do with recycled cardboard?

The obvious answer is to take it to a facility that can process it (like Junk King). Another answer though is to shred your recycled cardboard and add it to the backyard or community compost pile. The added fibers assist in getting air into the mound which in turn, assists in further breaking down the compost elements. 

You may now be tempted to ask what to do with old corrugated cardboard boxes? Since corrugated boxes are stronger than the average cardboard box, more can generally be done with them. They can be repackaged and shipped off again, or they can be used for a small to medium storage time.

They can even survive being wet for short periods of time. Many gardeners utilize them in greenhouses for helping to store seeds until the next growing period—the extra layers of material assist in keeping the temperature more balanced than thin plastic. 

Most cardboard, regardless of its type or the product that was in it, can be reused in different ways. Making sure to prioritize reuse over simply throwing it away will  ensure that you get the most out of your cardboard products. 

Benefits of Recycling Cardboard with Junk King

At some point in every cardboard’s life, they will need to go either to a recycling facility or a landfill, depending on their condition. Sending them to a landfill, although easier in the beginning, means that the cardboard will break down over time—2 to 12 months usually.

Meanwhile, sending them to a recycling facility will result in the cardboard boxes being broken down and repressed into new boxes and products. Some people may even find recycling materials lucrative, as recycled materials for sale are often quickly bought by DIYers and small businesses. 

No matter what condition your boxes or cardboard are in, calling on Junk King North Atlanta is the easiest way to recycle cardboard and/or remove them from your property.

Junk King approaches all of their hauls with an eye towards reuse and recycling—at least 60% of everything they haul is recycled in some manner!—they are even noted as being the greenest removal company in North America.

Additionally, in using Junk King’s recycling abilities there are numerous environmental benefits, such as keeping good products out of landfills. 

There are three ways to contact Junk King North Atlanta, and four ways to get a quote today: (1) give us a call at (888) 888 – JUNK (5865) to speak with a customer representative and either get a quote over the phone or schedule an in-person assessment; (2) or, consider texting  picture of your junk to us at (737) 888 – JUNK to receive a no-obligation estimate; (3) lastly, you could stay online and follow the prompts of our pricing estimator—at the end of the wizard you can even set up a drop-off time. 

Remember, when you choose to move with Junk King, removals are as easy as 1, 2, 3—just point and the junk is gone.