Edmonton Junk Removal Secrets: What Actually Happens to Your Trash?
Hey everyone, I’m here with Shane Mclean from 432-Yuck, and he is a junk removal operator in Edmonton, Alberta. And today we’re going to be talking about a topic that you might be interested in. It’s what happens to my junk after it gets picked up and removed from the house.
So, uh, most people think that junk just disappears the moment that we drive away, but there’s a whole process happening behind the scenes that most Edmontonians never see. The truth is, a lot of what we haul away never actually makes it to landfill. Today, we’re pulling back the curtain on exactly where your stuff goes, what gets saved, what gets recycled, and yes, what does end up in the ground.
I’ve got a statistic here I’m going to share. In 2022, 27.1% of solid waste generated in Canada was diverted from landfills through recycling, composting, and other diversion methods, up from 21.6 in 2002. And that’s from Stats Canada.
I got an interesting quote here from Charlie and Sons Hauling. Most junk removal professionals will find the best eco-friendly way to get rid of your waste. They separate recyclables from the rest of your junk and donate or repurpose reusable items. Most do not just dump everything in a landfill.
What Happens to Your Junk After Pickup
All right, so with that, I’m going to start off with question number one. Shane, when the truck pulls away from someone’s house, what actually happens next? Where does the load go first?
Uh, so the city has transfer stations they’re called. The companies come and dump their rubbish, their junk there. And then they have machines that classify it. They take out the metals, take out the woods, and then they crush up all the remaining garbage and put them into really big trucks and then they ship them out to like landfills that are about 2 or 3 hours outside of the city because the city’s expanding so much where now the landfill the old landfills are surrounded by the city, right? So
Sorting, Donations, and What Gets Recycled
I see. Okay, neat. Now, how do you decide in the moment what can be donated, what gets recycled, and what actually ends up in the landfill?
Yeah. So, it’s a mixture of things. Obviously your own personal interests, like some of the drivers have different interests, some like, you know, let’s say sports cards or or antiques, but it also has a mixture of how full our schedule is because if we got a full day, we don’t got time to sit there and kind of pick and choose what we want. And then, yeah, sometimes the client requests us to try and donate certain things, too.
Okay. So yeah, it’s just a mixture of kind of per job or per day.
Yeah, it all depends on what’s in the truck, right?
Yeah, exactly. And you know how busy you are, right? Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, cuz if you’re if you got a busy schedule, got lots on the go, you can’t necessarily stop at the Goodwill and leave to donate or whatnot, but you try to.
Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah. Nice.
Okay. Now, what are some of the most common items Edmonton homeowners throw out that could have been easily donated or reused?
Oh, yeah. That’s an easy one. Uh, furniture is a big one. Couches, chairs, you know, tables and then obviously clothes.
You know, clothes are a big, big donation item, right? So, yeah. Yeah. That’s too bad that a lot of people don’t just, you know, either put them out for free, list them on Marketplace, come pick it up, get it out of my house, that kind of thing. Yeah, it’s unfortunate, but you know, there’s always opportunities, I guess, for you to drop it off at a donation site, you know, when the time permits, right?
Yeah. Luckily, there’s lots of those donation boxes around the city. You just got to get to know where they are and keep an eye for them, right?
Yeah. Nice. That’s great. Now, are there items that surprise people, uh, things they assume are trash that you can actually divert?
Surprising Items That Can Be Saved or Reused
Yeah, to be honest, lots of like machines or mechanics that just have a dead battery or one little piece that’s broken where it’s easy to to call the supplier and get a new one.
You know, we just had a big cleaning machine that someone threw out and it was worth like $3,000 and all it needed was a new battery.
Oh my goodness.
Yeah. So, that was kind of lucky on our end.
Crazy. That’s great.
Yeah. Now, how does the Edmonton or Alberta waste system work for companies like yours? Are there specific facilities that you have to work with locally?
Yeah. So, those transfer stations are for commercial use only.
So, the normal residential client wouldn’t be able to drive up there with their pickup truck or trailer.
And that’s where, like first of all, we try and recycle as much as we can by taking the metals, the batteries, the tires out before we take it to the transfer stations. But then once we dispose of our garbage there, they go through it with their machines. So it kind of gets like a two-step recycling process, right?
Okay. Interesting. Now, what happens to large items like hot tubs or old appliances, uh deck boards? Does the process look different for those items?
No. It’s pretty similar for big small large large quantity, small quantity, it all it all gets to the same place, gets separated, gets uh broken down and then sent to the landfill. So
Okay. Now, uh when something does have to go to landfill, what does that process look like? And is it just dumped there or is there more to it?
To the landfills. I think it just gets dumped there to be honest because those sites are very very big. Yeah. Right. So they have so much garbage like you you wouldn’t believe how much garbage a city this size produces per day, right?
How Homeowners Can Reduce Waste and Save Time
Like how has the push toward recycling and sustainability changed how you operate over the years?
Yeah, that question is a tough one because everybody wants to recycle as much as they can all the time, but the reality is with time, money, you know, the overhead, it gets hard. So I think you know before I was into the in in this business there wasn’t too many different categories but now when we go to the landfills or or when people are throwing the garbage out as commercial companies we we understand the classification of what’s usable what’s reusable what is class classified as hazardous or or you know that that stuff. So, I think the government has done a good job by trying to make those classifications. So, it’s just up to us to follow them.
Now, what’s something the average Edmonton homeowner could do differently before calling you that would help reduce what ends up in the landfill?
Yeah. So, I think you touched on that one a little earlier by trying to sell the items on a marketplace or on Kijiji or calling one of the donation companies to, you know, come out and assess it or send them photos.
I think this is the biggest one is not leaving the junk or the garbage situation until the last minute.
Because when people call us, usually we’re the last stop and they want to go on right then and there and as soon as possible and that doesn’t give us enough time to kind of, you know, orchestrate things properly. So if homeowners would give us a little more heads up, then that would be better instead of last minute.
Nice. And then things aren’t going into the landfill right away. They’re being used by somebody else.
Exactly. Or Yeah. You know, I think that the biggest thing is just the timing of pushing it to the last minute.
Yeah. Great. Last question. If someone is on the fence about hiring a junk removal company versus taking stuff to the dump themselves, what should they know about how responsibly their stuff gets handled?
Yeah, so that’s a big one because like I was explaining earlier, we already understand the different classifications of what goes where, what’s able to get disposed of at the eco stations. And for us, we save a lot of time and effort on the normal person just throwing it in the back of their truck because they could take a load there and half of it would be accepted and the other half wouldn’t, right? Because they don’t uh they don’t understand that some of the items should be going to an eco station and not the landfill and the mattresses only are accepted at this location and vice versa, right? So, you know, we take that burden off them by our expertise, right?
That makes a lot of sense. So you actually know where the things should go and you’re saving people time. Like really it’s a timesaver. Not everybody wants to, you know, drive around the city all day or go out to Sherwood Park or go to wherever to try and dump off some items. You know, eco stations, there’s only a few in the city. They’re not conveniently located typically and there’s lineups and all of that. So you can save them a lot of time and energy plus carrying it out of the house.
Yeah. Yeah, you but or for someone loading their truck or their their trailer, they have to load it once to get it in and then once they arrive to the this this transfer station or the eco station, they have to unload it again and they have to classify it in different zones and it takes a lot of time and then waiting to scale in and scale out. Like it’s an all day thing, right?
Yeah, it’s a thing. So, save some time. Uh and also help save the environment and pull some stuff out of that landfill. call 432 yuck and Shane will be happy to uh help you out, come to your house, assess what you’ve got and clean it out. Now you not only do clean outs like you do for let’s say hoarder houses or you do construction cleanup but you also have some uh smaller roll off bins for smaller jobs. Talk about that a little bit.
Yeah. So, the roll off bins are perfect for do-it-yourself kind of weekend projects, you know, or like if you have a small renovation, basement, uh bathroom, you know, or or flooring, spring cleanup, backyard cleanup, garage cleanup, basement cleanup. Those smaller bins are perfect because they fit right on your driveway, you know? They’re not heavy enough to break it or scratch it. You know, some of those bigger bins, they’re they take up more than the driveway, and there’s no room for you to throw it six feet over. Right. Right. So, the smaller bins are pretty pretty good for residential clients.
Nice. And all you have to do is visit the website. What is the website again?
Uh 432yuck.com. 432yuck.com.
And you can uh call Shane. He can come out, assess what you’ve got, give you a price, and get that junk out of your place today. So, thanks so much for joining us and we’ll see you in the next video.