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Many of us might think that recycling has always been a “thing.” But the truth is, it hasn’t been a common practice until the Twentieth century.
In the 1920s, 70 percent of cities in the United States ran recycling programs – just good economic sense for households. And two decades later during World War II, industry recycled and reused about 25 percent of the waste stream, recycling everything from steel to nylon stockings.
As one article noted,
“During the war, nylon was needed to make parachutes, flak vests and other equipment and nylon stockings were in short supply. Some women painted their legs to look like nylons and used black eye-liner to draw a seam up the back.”
Recycling fell on hard times after the War, however, and by 1960 only 7 percent of households recycled. In fact, it wasn’t until 1981 that Woodbury, New Jersey became the first city in the U.S. to mandate recycling. By 1990, it’s reported that 17 percent of households recycled.
And today, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s data, the recycling rate has increased from less than 7 percent in 1960 to the current rate of 32 percent.
Junk King is doing its part to keep that tradition alive by consistently striving for a 60 percent junk recycling rate.
How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint with Junk Recycling
Regardless of whether you’re a homeowner, tenant, or business owner or manager of a business, the need to remove junk is common.
Your junk removal needs can be in the form of everything from furniture removal to old electronics, or e-waste, to excess yard waste to construction waste. When it comes to taking care of junk removal and junk pick-up, your options include doing it all yourself – the DIY route – or having someone else do it for you.
With either option, however, one of your concerns should be – and most likely is – how to recycle as much of your junk as possible.
And when it comes to being environmentally friendly – when you want to “Go Green” with junk recycling – the process goes far beyond recycling cans, bottles, paper, and plastic. Junk recycling, whether it’s junk from your home or junk from your workplace, can involve a larger and wider variety of debris and waste materials.
For example, junk recycling can mean appliance recycling and recycling e-waste.
You mean you can recycle a clothes dryer?! Yes, you can since most household appliances are 80 to 90 percent steel and other metals. And metal can be recycled almost infinitely if recovered properly.
Then there’s the e-waste or electronic waste.
These materials are all the waste from consumer products and devices that contain electronics. All of our gadgets such as smartphones, tablets, e-readers, laptops, desktop computers, mobile phones, monitors, and so on – these are what constitute most of what we call e-waste.
And, as a nation, we’re not doing a really good job of recycling them. This is why you can help reduce your carbon footprint in a big way with e-waste and electronic junk recycling.
Junk Recycling and the Problem with E-Waste
How bad is it?
An article from Tech Times pointed out that, globally,
“According to ABC, despite the e-waste now containing anything coming from gold and silver even to valuable glass and other rare earth elements, it was noted that only about 17.4% will be effectively recycled. This is based on the 2019 figures.”
In the United States, the picture is not much brighter. According to the EPA, back in 2018, the rate of selected consumer electronics recycling, which includes “products such as TVs, VCRs, DVD players, video cameras, stereo systems, telephones and computer equipment,” was 38.5 percent. That sounds better, but it doesn’t account for all e-waste generated in the U.S.
One of the problems with e-waste is its potential for environmental harm. Most electronics contain some amount of metals and other elements that, if allowed to leach into groundwater or escape into the air, can become toxic waste.
Unfortunately, of the almost seven million tons of e-waste discarded by Americans currently, only 12.5 percent is recycled.
The good news is that with the help of a green junk removal service like Junk King Fairfax, you can arrange to haul junk away from your home or workplace, knowing that as much as 60 percent or more of it will be recycled.
Now THAT’S an easy way to reduce your carbon footprint!
Two Ways to Keep Up the Great American Tradition of Being Green with Junk Removal
Most of us in America, and that includes the greater Fairfax region, enjoy do-it-yourself or DIY projects.
Now, you may never have thought of junk removal as a project but more likely as a chore or even a dreaded burden of a task. And if you chose to do it yourself, that would be quite understandable. However, DIY junk removal doesn’t have to be a burden.
With Junk King Fairfax you can easily rent a dumpster that is specifically designed to be user-friendly, easy to access, and takes up little space on your driveway, parking lot, or curbside. A simple call to Junk King also means skipping the hassle of searching the Internet for “Dumpster rental near me” or some other online search terms.
If you want to load your junk items on your schedule and at your own pace, a Junk King rental MINI Dumpster is definitely the best DIY approach you can take.
The second way to be green with your junk removal is to have someone else do it all for you and who will ensure that as much as possible gets recycled.
That would be Junk King Fairfax!
Our professional and courteous junk haulers can show up in almost no time to pick up junk and haul it away for you. And we guarantee that we will sort it and recover as much that can be recycled as possible. Typically, that means as much as 60 percent or more.
Not only are we friendly and good at what we do, we offer the best pricing for junk hauling services in our area which includes great communities like Fairfax, Woodbridge, Sterling, Lorton, Clifton, or Dumfries.
Need Junk Removed in Fairfax County? Junk King Fairfax is Your Green Choice!
If you live in or near the greater Fairfax area, Junk King Fairfax is here to take care of all your junk removal needs.
Sometimes, your household or workplace junk can pile up and threaten to overwhelm you. It may be in your garage, your basement, or your storage shed out behind your loading dock. In fact, you may even be spending much needed cash on a self-storage unit for your junk!
No matter where it’s piling up, if you don’t want it or need it then it’s time to get rid of it!
The green team at Junk King Fairfax provides efficient, safe, and authentically eco-friendly junk and debris removal services. And you can know that we really are eco-friendly because we work hard to recycle or reuse as much of everything that we pick up each and every day.
And our experienced junk removal team will carefully remove and haul off any types of junk or other unwanted items you might have, and our junk removal teams are trained and equipped to handle all your large junk items like old appliances, as well.
Our professional and courteous junk removal team will show up at your home or office, and we’ll call 15 to 30 minutes before we arrive. Once we’re on-site, we give you a free estimate based on how much room your junk takes up in our truck.
Then you simply point, and we’ll load those old junk items into our junk removal trucks and haul them away to be recycled, if possible, and with no hidden fees.
So, are you ready to get rid of your junk and have it recycled? It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3.
Just make an appointment by booking online above, or by calling us at 1.888.888.JUNK (5865).
