Junk Removal in Tampa - An Introduction

by Goldie

Posted on 17-08-2021 06:39 PM

Junk Removal in Tampa - An Introduction

According to a 2018 study conducted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an American produced 4.9 pounds of junk per day. The total generation of solid waste that calendar year being 292.4 million U.S short tons. According to Statista, Americans produce double the per capita waste generation of Japan every year at slightly more than 800 kilograms of waste. On average, the plastic waste per American stands at 202.92 pounds in a year, which includes; durable and non-durable plastics, plastics cups and plates, plastic trash bags, plastic bottles and jars, plastic PP, PS, HDPE, PVS, LDPE/LLDPE containers, plastic bag, shacks, wraps and packaging, etcetera. Global warming is rising every day, causing heat waves, tsunamis, floods, forest fires, resulting in the death of hundreds of people all over the world. Climate change is real and is constantly happening all around us. Junk removal and less wastage of both renewable and non-renewable energy are required to be followed by every citizen on this planet to reduce the threat of rising global warming. 42% of greenhouse gas emissions by the U.S are created in producing daily resources, disposing the waste and transporting the resources which are far higher than the generation of electricity throughout the U.S. Recycling is key here because recycling prevents the production of new materials lessens the energy usage. However, recycling alone cannot be the sole solution we can rely on with the growing population and lack of awareness among the masses. This is where better waste handling and effective junk removal comes in. Along with recycling and junk removal, we can prevent pollution to quite some extent. A mass initiative for the same can greatly enrich our environment and save it from the impending global extinction of life. This article aims to explain junk removal, the various ways of junk removal and how we can help our environment with junk removal.

Junk Removal

Junk Removal Tampa The term ‘junk’ is usually defined as old or discarded material that serves no purpose and has little to no economic value. The old television in your house that you no longer use after buying the new television set would be termed ‘junk’. In some cases, junk can be resold at lower prices, but it includes items that cannot be easily disposed of in most cases. Suppose you are clearing out your basement, filled with old items; in which bin do you throw your old furniture pieces or your kid’s toys? Junk can also include discarded pieces of flooring, drywall or other types of construction debris. In the case of junk removal, the junk in question is not a singular item but a collection of discarded stuff that no longer serves a purpose, but you also do not how or where to dispose of it.

Evolution of Waste Management:

waste managementIn the context of the United States, Benjamin Franklin was the one who started the first cleaning service in 1757 and encouraged masses to dig pits to bury their waste. At the time, it was effective because wastes back then consisted mostly of biodegradable material, i.e., a material capable of being decomposed by living bacteria or other organisms, thereby avoiding pollution. But the drive died down soon, and in the 1800s, people in Washington D.C. started openly discarding their waste on the streets, filling them up, which threatened the outbreak of all sorts of epidemics. Towards the mid-1800s, Sir Edwin Chadwick, a social reformer, wrote ‘The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population.' In this report, Sir Edwin argued the importance of waste disposal and management to improve health and living conditions. Four years later, England passed the ‘Nuisance Removal and Disease Prevention Act of 1846’ in London. The increasing need for an effective waste disposal system saw the creation of the first incineration plants or popularly termed at the time as ‘destructors.’ In the late 1800s, New York City became the first U.S city to develop public-sector garbage management. However, installing various incineration plants did not solve the problem because people in the early 1900s were still dumping waste everywhere, effectively filling up water and roadways. Then in 1934, the Supreme Court banned the dumping of municipal waste into the ocean, sanitary landfills came into use. In 1937, the first sanitary was opened in Fresno, California, which equipped processing, compacting and covering waste under the soil. By the 1950s, the burning of waste was prohibited by the Clean Air Act. The U.S Parliament passed the Solid Waste Disposal Act in 1965. The Protection of Environment Act was created by President Richard Nixon in 1970, following which, recycling of old items came into the limelight. Today, two of the world’s largest landfills are situated right here in the U.S.: one in Las Vegas and the other in Los Angeles, processing more than 11.000 pounds of garbage daily.

Various Ways of Junk Removal:

Fast forward to 2021, here is a comprehensive list of various ways of junk removal:

  1. Selling used products online: Craigslist is one of the biggest online websites where you can find all sorts of old and used items, from used clothes to movie collector’s props. The most commonly resold items online include clothes, electronics, furniture, musical instruments, spare parts, books, etcetera.
    1. Gazelle is a good website for selling your used phones or other electronic devices like old CRT televisions, computer monitors, UPS systems, CPUs, or even spare parts.
    2. ThredUp, Poshmark and Etsy are good online marketplaces for selling your branded / non-branded clothes, shoes, accessories. These days, Facebook Marketplace and Instagram are also some effective websites to sell your old stuff which you do not use anymore but are still in condition, and others can benefit from it. The pandemic has seen the rise of various small businesses, including online thrift stores run via Instagram profiles.
    3. Facebook Marketplace is not limited to just selling old clothes but can also be used to sell old furniture pieces like that old desk that takes up most of your living room space or the filing cabinet, which no longer suits the rest of your household aesthetic.
    4. Amazon is another effective website to sell your old books. Powell’s Books allow both walk-in book appraisals and online appraisals for your pre-loved books.
  2. Donating

Selling items can prove to be an extra hassle because marketing is key in sales. If you are ready to let go of that extra buck you would be making off reselling old items; then you can donate to less fortunate people within your community. Every town has their own orphanages and shelter homes where you can donate your old clothes, shoes, accessories, books, food, working electronic devices, musical instruments, etcetera. This process not only clears space in your house but also helps raise your sense of community and co-existence.

  1. Giving away

Another way of decluttering your personal space is giving away your junk to students. Students living in dorms are the thriftiest people one will ever across. College fees and living expenses are way too high already, so college students are always looking for free stuff. You can put up ‘free stuff’ flyers around a college campus or dorm boards or post on any online message boards that you are part of. Some websites for the same would be Freecycle and Nextdoor.

  1. Upcycle

Upcycle, also termed as ‘creative reuse’, is the process by which you transform waste products, useless materials, by-products into new materials or products of high quality. A good example of upcycling would be transforming the work desk by changing paint or the top cardboard instead of buying a new desk. The internet is filled with millions of videos on upcycling your items into different varieties of products. Most of the junk we possess can be salvaged, like old clothes, old furniture, etcetera.

  1. Recycle

Recycle is the processing of materials like paper, metal, cardboard, glass, plastic, tires, fabrics, batteries, textiles, and electronics to turn them into new products. Recycling should be the key to get rid to take care of junk and waste because it helps not only your environment but also your community. Landfills can only contain so much waste, so recycling is a good way to check the amount of waste that gets sent to the landfills every year. Also, the less waste burned in incinerators, the fewer gas emissions are released into the atmosphere, effectively conserving various natural resources like timber, water and minerals. It also conserves energy. Some examples of daily use products produced from recycled materials are newspapers, aluminium cans, motor oil, car bumpers, paper towels, carpeting, cereal boxes, comic books, egg cartons, glass containers, nails, steel products, laundry detergent bottles and trash bags. Recycling also creates jobs because, in recycling factories, recycled materials need to be processed, organized and cleaned before they can be sent off to manufacturers as raw materials. So, recycling contributes to the economy by reducing the cost of items and creating new jobs.

  1. Hire Junk Removal companies

Finally, there are numerous companies out there that can take your junk off your hands. Junk Removal is a service where a group of people come by your house at a scheduled time chosen by you to pick up the junk. The services are available on-demand, i.e., you can call a junk removal company and make an appointment when the company will come to your address and haul away the junk items. The Junk Removal companies then organise your junk items based on what they can recycle, dispose of, or send them to a second-use store. The main point behind disposing of your junk items is preserving the environment. Of all the various ways mentioned hereinabove, they all have one thing in common: preservation of environment and energy. All the methods ensure that we do not cause more harm to our environment. Reusing, upcycling and recycling are very important to deter global warming; they ensure that extra emissions are not created by industries in making those products and ensure that people who cannot afford to buy some high-priced items can purchase the used ones at lower prices. It definitely helps lessen the physical consumption footprint.

Benefits of Junk Removal

Systematic junk removal prevents people from throwing away their waste anywhere and polluting the environment. Waste is wide of two types: biodegradable and non-biodegradable. In the modern world, most waste products contain non-biodegradable items, which, when thrown out in the open with no precautions, only hurt nature because they cannot be decomposed or broken down by micro-organisms. The non-biodegradable wastes need to be transported to particular landfills and incinerators, equipped with efficient technology that helps decompose the non-biodegradable wastes. The emission from these incinerators, in turn, produces methane gas, which is one of the greenhouse gases, but with the modern age, humans have found a way to turn that into a useful source of energy. Instead of letting the methane gas out into the atmosphere and letting it get trapped there, which raises the earth's temperature, the released methane gas is collected and converted into renewable natural gas, which can be used to produce electricity, fuels and heat. But decomposing the junk is only the final step; the initial step is still to be taken by us all as a collective force. We have to remove, recycle, upcycle, reuse our waste actively before the decomposition part of the sequence comes into play. Life is busy more than ever, especially when we are moving houses or clearing out our existing work and living space. Junk removal companies make our lives easier by taking the junk off our hands, eliminating the headache of what to do next to decompose the junk. The junk removal companies have made it their motto to recycle as many junk items as possible before sending off unsalvageable materials. So, while you stay back in the comfort of your house after getting rid of the junk, you would still feel relieved knowing that all the junk items are being taken care of in the best way possible to help the environment. A zero-waste economy is possible by reducing consumption, recycling, reusing, repairing and composting goods. Everyone has to take a step forward and stick to the initiative to make the world the place they envision it.

Brought To You By Junk Removal

This article first appeared on: https://berlinerpress.com/junk-removal-in-tampa-various-ways-of-junk-removal/

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