Snappy newsletters. Simple Facebook sharing. Spirited comments. Sweet features are waiting… GET THEM NOW!

Hot on Facebook

Guy Buys $123 Safe on eBay, Finds $26,000 Inside Seller tries to get half the cash back, fails »

Got Junk? Call These Guys

Company turns trash into profit

By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 26, 2008 12:56 PM CDT

(Newser) – A shed full of roller skates, 400 wedding dresses, 18,000 sardine cans, a diffused bomb—1-800-GOT-JUNK? hauls away more than just trash in its custom-built dump trucks. The largest junk-hauling company in North America turned clutter into revenues of $150 million this year, says NPR, while professionalizing the industry and banishing the stereotypical image of a sloppy junk hauler in baggy pants.

The company, founded in 1989 and boasting 300 franchise outlets, sends employees to separate what can be recycled or donated from what must be thrown away, and clean up afterwards. The $10 per hour pay is coupled with permission to keep or sell their finds; one employee has furnished his house with “junk” like a leather couch and Magnavox TV.

[Images (3)]

[Videos (2)]

1-800-GOT-JUNK? will send a custom-built company truck to haul away your stuff. ((c) Monkey [20after4])

Started in 1989 with a single truck, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? has turned private garbage collection into big business. (1800gotjunk.com)

1-800-GOT-JUNK? has turned private collection of unwanted items into a $150m a year business. (Official Logo)

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

1-800-GOT-JUNK? Daily Huddle Meeting (1800GOTJUNK (YouTube))

1-800-GOT-JUNK? CNBC - How I Made My Millions (1800GOTJUNK (YouTube))

View larger videos >>

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next »

To report an error on this story, notify our editors.

More Newser Stories

Garbage Cam Airs Dirty Trash Habits

Camera phone posts pictures of garbage on Facebook, encourages recycling

(AP) - Now on Facebook: Your garbage. Or at least, the garbage of five households who signed up for a Newcastle University program that posts photos of every item dumped in one garbage can on Facebook. Hoping to raise consciousness about recycling efforts, it uses a sensor and a camera phone to snap an image each time the garbage can lid shuts. The person who does that is not photographed, and households that participate will be rated on how efficiently they recycle. So far, researchers say it's working. Non-recyclable garbage has diminished in the weeks since the program began. More»

Big Stink: Great Garbage Patch's Size Exaggerated

Think 1% the size of Texas, not twice as big

(NEWSER) - The "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" is often said to be twice the size of Texas—but that and other scary-sounding claims are “grossly exaggerated,” some scientists are now insisting. A new study shows the plastic waste patch is actually 200 times smaller than previously claimed when comparing its mass to the amount of water; if you need a Texas-sized visual, it’s actually closer to 1% of the state's area, says researcher Angelicque White. More»

Indian Tribe Doesn't Want US Trash on Sacred Land

It's fighting a plan to ship Hawaii garbage to Washington state

(NEWSER) - Hawaii's landfill space is in such short supply, the state decided to transport thousands of tons of trash 2,600 miles to Washington. Making the journey even more bizarre: The waste would travel over the Yakama Indians' sacred hunting grounds to get to its destination, and the tribe is none too happy about that. "This whole dispute leads us to believe the federal government doesn't want to honor its commitments" to Native Americans, says the tribal chairman. More»

Plastic Garbage Patch Found in Atlantic

Covers thousands of square miles, endangers fish

(NEWSER) - If you’re planning on taking a cruise, hopefully your ship won’t travel through the “great Atlantic garbage patch” that covers thousands of square miles between Bermuda and the Azores islands. The plastic debris is so small that some pieces are almost invisible, and the floating trash heap—pushed together by currents—is difficult to see from the surface, the AP reports…but it’s still enough to make you queasy. More»

Egypt Kills All Pigs— But Pigs Eat All Trash

With no swine to eat garbage, waste piles up on city streets

(NEWSER) - When the Egyptian government decided to kill all of Cairo’s pigs last spring in a pre-emptive measure to combat swine flu, they apparently forgot that the pigs performed a vital function in a city with poor public services: eating trash, the New York Times reports. The zabaleen, Cairo’s Christian minority, used to collect trash door-to-door, selling recyclables and feeding the organic waste to their pigs. With all their pigs dead, the zabaleen leave the trash, which now overflows in the streets. More»

NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS

What is Newser?

Face it: there's too much news. At Newser, we choose the most thought-provoking and entertaining stories from hundreds of US and international sources and reduce them to a headline, picture, and two paragraphs. And we do it 24/7—you can come back morning, noon, night (and in between) for something new that matters. Read less, know more.

Learn more »

Partnering with: Slate

View Newser on the mobile website

Got Junk? Call These Guys