illustration of hand taking a photo on a phone Text Us

Junk King Fairfax

4.5/5 stars

Read Reviews

The #1 Rated Junk Removal Service. We provide superior value, service and effort

More About Us arrow

  • Call Us

    Let us know what you need disposed or recycled. We take just about everything!

    illustration of a cell phone
    1-888-888 (JUNK)

  • Text Us

    Send us an image of the junk you got and we got the rest covered.

    illustration of a hand holding a cell phone
    1-737-888-5865
  • gold star

    Save
    $20

Author Archives: Alex Powers

Recycling E-Waste in Fairfax, Arlington, and Alexandria

Here are some tips to dispose of e-waste properly for do-it-yourself.

E-waste includes CDs (players & discs), Cellular Phones, Computer Components, Computers, Copy Machines, DVDs (players & discs), Fax Machines, Household Phones, Internet Devices, Keyboard & Mice, Miscellaneous Wiring, Monitors, Motors, MP3, Players, Printers, Scanners, Stereo Equipment, Televisions, and Video Game Consoles.

Fairfax residents can take e-waste to I-66 Transfer Station, 4618 West Ox Road, Fairfax, VA 22030. Fees usually apply. One can expect to pay $10 to $20 to dispose of old CRT style monitors and TVs. These old monitors have up to 5 pounds of lead each. However, you can dispose e-waste for free on Fairfax County’s Electric Sundays. The county funds this program at approximately $250,000 per year to encourage residents to dispose e-waste properly. Check the county’s website for dates and details: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/recycling/electric-sunday.htm

Arlington Residents can take their e-waste to the HHM Facility and Electronics Collection and Recycling Center (ECRC), Water Pollution Control Plant, 530 31st St. S. (WPCP Gate #3) Saturday, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. You can contact the County and schedule an e-waste pickup, although fees around $10 for computers to $20 for monitors apply. See the County website for details: https://freshaireva.us/ai1ec_event/ecare/?instance_id=61.

Alexandria residents can take e-waste to 3224 Colvin Street. See the city’s site for hours, details, and applicable fees: https://alexandriava.gov/tes/solidwaste/info/default.aspx?id=19206

If you have a lot of e-waste or you have other mixed junk you need hauled away, you can save time and money by calling Junk King. We charge by volume rather than the item, so usually our cost for disposing e-waste is significantly less that the local government fees.   Junk King is 100% landfill free. We – like our local governments – are committed to preserving the environment for the generations to come.

Picking a Junk Removal Company – What to ask.

You might ask, “What’s the big deal? They’re just hauling away my junk, so I’ll just go with the lowest price.” Make sure you are getting real value. Like most home service providers, you have great performers and the not so great.
First, you need to remember that a full-service junk removal company is not like the trash company. The trash company does not come onto your property or into your house. You, in effect, deliver the garbage to the curb where the trash company collects it. Liability to the homeowner is practically zero.
Not so for junk removal. Because junk removal companies come onto your property, you want to know that they are properly insured and licensed. The same is true if you hire a tree removal service.
When considering a junk removal company, here are some questions you might ask.
What is your physical address? If the company has leased commercial space, you know that some landlord has checked their suitability.
What kind of trucks and how many do you have? If the company has multiple trucks designed specifically for junk removal, then most likely a truck dealer and financing company has checked the company for suitability.
What do you do with the junk and debris you haul away? The company ought to be able to give specifics: Lorton Covanta, Ox Road Transfer Station. . . . Last September, I saw a fly-by-night junk hauler at 5 a.m. emptying the contents of his pick-up truck into a dumpster at a condominium complex. Dumping costs run about 10% of the total job costs for an efficient company with commercial permits. By the way, if the company does not have a warehouse, they are limited in how much they can donate and recycle.

What kind of insurance do you have? The owner ought to know that he needs vehicle insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, general liability insurance, and cargo insurance to fully protect the customer. The cost of this insurance can run up to $1,000 per month for each truck and crew. Small, undercapitalized junk removal companies often skimp on these important protections. They may pass the savings to the customer, but they pass along much of the risk, too.

When you look at on-line reviews, consider whether the site ensures that the reviews are from actual customers. Sites such as Angie’s List and Service Magic have reliable reviews.

* * *

Junk King’s warehouse: 7627 Fullerton Road, Springfield VA 22153
Junk King has three 18,500 GVW Isuzu Trucks with custom bodies, ramps, winches, and tools. We have 18 employees on our roster, full and part time. All are citizens, well-screened, and trained.
Junk King is 100% landfill free. We donated to Rebuild and other 501c(3) organizations. We are bonded and have commercial permits at the Fairfax disposal sites for burnable trash and yard waste. We recycle steel at two facilities in Woodbridge. We palletize TV monitors and pay to have them processed for the lead. We have an end-user who takes and recycles e-waste. We have relationships for disposing of concrete, tile at DC Rock. We participate in a dirt-swapping forum.
Junk King is fully insured and bonded. We carry vehicle, general liability, and cargo insurance. We pay workers compensation insurance.
Junk King has more than 50 unbiased reviews on Angie’s List. We earned the Service Star for Excellence in 2011. We have about 40 reviews on Service Magic, where we are the highest-rated junk removal service in the area.

Customer Service is Key

Only 5% of Angie's List vendors earn the Super Service Award

Junk King earned Angie’s List Super Service Star for 2011, with 50+ reviews with an A average.

The junk and debris removal business is all about service: making the customer’s life easier and better. We help people reclaim their valuable space by removing all kinds of unwanted items: old furniture, appliances, mattresses, trash, yard debris, construction debris, tires, and such. We provide all the labor to remove those unwanted items so the customer can save his or her back. For example, we demo sheds and hot tubs—all those jobs that the County garbage service won’t do.
We know all the proper ways to dispose of the unwanted items. We sort the items at our warehouse. Then, we recycle, repurpose, and donate 100% of everything we haul. That’s right—100%! Nothing goes into a landfill. We are the greenest full-service junk removal service in the Washington DC Area.
We protect our clients. All our employees are carefully vetted and trained. We do not use casual or day labor. We are insured and bonded, too. Many other junk haulers cut corners in these important areas.
In addition, we provide the lowest price of any full-service junk removal service. Our trucks are bigger. Our crews are more efficient. Our recycling cuts down on dumping fees. We pass all these savings to our clients.
We are determined to keep our A Average with Angie’s List and earn their Super Service Star for 2012.

Junk King Fairfax is 100% Landfill Free!

Junk King Fairfax is now 100% landfill free. We set that goal last year. We reached 95% landfill free by June, and now in November, we’ve finally made it to 100%!

And the news gets better—we achieved our 100% landfill free goal without sacrificing any service or convenience to our clients. Moreover, we achieved our 100% landfill free goal without adding one penny of cost to our clients.
We are still full service: we haul everything but hazardous material.

Therefore, we had to find a end use for concrete, tile, porcelain, dry wall, treated lumber, dirt, paper, trash, yard debris, used furniture, e-waste, TV monitors, mattresses, tires, metal, glass, and other materials. We donate, recycle, or purpose 100% of everything we haul. Even the debris to be burned becomes electricity for Fairfax County homes.
Our 100% landfill free achievement is practical because our trained crews know how to separate debris at the job site, and further separate the debris at our warehouse. Then, we take the separated debris to the most cost efficient disposal sites where we have excellent working relationships. These end-users know that our debris is well sorted which saves them time and money. All this good will and value come back to our clients.
Therefore, we can offer our clients the greenest junk removal service and still offer King-size service with King-size savings.

Neighborhood Cleanup Day!

Would you like to nominate your neighborhood for a Neighborhood Cleanup day?
Junk King Fairfax is sponsoring a series of Neighborhood cleanup days. These Saturday events provide huge savings and convenience to consumers.
On Neighborhood Cleanup Saturday, you can get rid of those items the trash company won’t take in the normal pick-up: old grills, basketball hoops, rusted bicycles, construction debris, furniture, appliances, TV monitors, e-waste, mattresses, tires, batteries . . . everything but hazardous waste.
The convenience is huge. Our strong crew carries all the heavy stuff. You point, we carry. We want our friends and neighbors to save their backs.
The savings are huge. The Neighborhood Cleanup discount puts your price below the trash company’s charge for special pick-ups.
Junk King is the greenest full-service junk removal company in Northern Virginia. We are 95% landfill free.
We have more than 3,000 neighborhoods in Northern Virginia, but only 52 Saturday’s each year. If you wish, you can nominate your neighborhood for a Neighborhood Cleanup Saturday, and we’ll give your neighborhood priority. Call me, Alex Powers, at (703) 455-3861 or send me an email at alexp@junk-king.com.

Limiting the Cost of Storm Damage

After the storm, you need to clear the debris of fallen branches. You have three choices:

  1. Call a real tree removal service.
  2. Hire one of those fellows in a pick up truck going door to door.
  3. Call Junk King.

Here are the pro and cons.

If you have a tree in a potentially dangerous situation, you need to call a fully insured, licensed tree removal service.

The fellows going door to door are convenient, but they are not always adequately insured, and they often cost more than the established tree removal service.

If you simply have a big mess of debris, your best value is to call Junk King. We can usually provide same-day service at no extra cost so we are as convenient as the door-to-door crews, and we cost less. We have the tools to cut up the debris and our huge 18 cubic yard trucks can hold four times the debris than a large pick up truck. We are fully insured.

So actually, you have two choices. If you have a tree laying across your house or threatening to fall, call the experts at an established tree removal company. If you have a mess of debris to haul, call Junk King and save a bundle.  1-800-995-JUNK (5865)

Storing Junk compared to Dumping Junk

This article is not a knock on public storage. I, myself, have rented storage space for my inventory until I could build my own storage. When I had a temporary overseas assignment, I rented storage space for my furniture, until my return. Note, in both cases, the decision to use temporary storage had a specific exit strategy, and I had specific uses for the items stored.

The Self Storage Association reports that 50% of storage unit renters store what won’t fit into their homes. 1 out of every 11 Americans rents storage. However, too many of those people use public storage to store junk – stuff they’ll never use again. They do not have an exit strategy.  In effect, they use public storage to postpone the decision to get rid of unused furniture, junk, and clutter.

Public storage isn’t cheap. In the DC Metro Area, a 10 foot by 5 foot climate controlled storage unit (about the size of a walk-in closet) costs $75 per month, or $900 per year. In addition, you provide the labor and hauling to move your stuff to the storage unit.

As an alternative, getting rid of the unwanted items requires decisions, time, labor, and often some expense. A 10 foot by 5 foot unit with an 8 foot ceiling packed tightly holds about 16 cubic yards. You can rent a 15-yard dumpster for around $450, and you provide the labor. You can hire Junk King to perform all the labor and remove the unwanted items for less than $450.

As a rough rule-of-thumb, the cost of disposing unwanted items is equal to the cost of 6 months’ rent to store them.  A lot of people opt for the “free” first month of rent and slow $75 bleed than paying the cost for disposal. The problem is that at the end of 6 months rent–$450–you still have the unwanted items and you face the same decision: pay to dispose or pay to store.

If you need help solving this store vs dispose dilemma, you may want to engage a Professional Organizer.  These professionals are excellent at helping people prioritize.  Check out the National Association of Professional Organizers, or contact us for a referral.

Finally, here’s an enlightening case study written at another blog.  This person spent $48,000 over five years to store junk.
https://www.wisebread.com/5-ways-self-storage-units-are-more-sad-museums-than-savvy-solutions

Do-it-yourself Junk Hauling?

By nature, I’m a Do-it-yourselfer. But I’m also busy, so now I pick my Do-it-yourself battles more carefully.

Here’s a short case study comparing Do-it-yourself junk removal and Junk King. The bottom line is that if you have access to a free truck and you value your time at zero, the Do-it-yourself option is best. If you don’t have a truck, and you value your time at greater than $13 per hour, then the Junk King option is best.

Case Study
You are a homeowner in Falls Church and you want to get rid of an old couch, a mattress set, a few boxes of old papers, a broken lawnmower, old grill, an old TV and a stack of used ceramic tile from a left-over bathroom demo. The volume would fit in two pick-up trucks or a small stake-body truck.

Do-it-yourself Option
First, you need to rent a small truck: best case is $89 per day without insurance. You need to budget at least five hours to get the truck, return to your house, load the truck, drive it to the dump, unload the truck, and return it.
You need to return the truck with a full tank of gas. Trucks get about 12 miles per gallon. You need to budget for 6 gallons of fuel at $4 or another $24.
Pay the dump fees. The best value for the homeowner is to go to the Fairfax County Ox Road Transfer Station or the Lorton Covanta Facility. Typically, a county employee will check your load and assess a fee.  County residents get a break, but dumping is not free. In your case, you have mixed debris, which means you have some burnable debris, some steel, some e-waste, and some construction debris. Most likely, you are going to pay about $10 each for the mattress and box springs, $15 or more for the TV because of the lead content, and $15 for the rest: total $50.
After you pay the dump fees, the county employee will direct you to unload your truck at different piles. the mattresses go in the mattress pile, grill and lawnmower (drained of gas and oil) goes to the steel, tile goes to the construction debris. The burnable debris goes to another pile.
Consider the value of your time and your helper’s time. You will need help to load and unload the bulky items. The average wage in Fairfax County is $28/hour (census data). If time is worth $28 per hour, you need to budget another $280.
Beware of hidden costs. In the unlikely event that something goes wrong, the Do-it-yourselfer has the risk: injury, accident, property damage . . . For example, carriers who haul stuff pay for cargo insurance in addition to auto insurance in case something falls out of their vehicle and causes damage. Typical auto insurance doesn’t cover that kind of accident.

Therefore, the Do-it-Yourself option has the following costs:

  • Truck rental  $89
  • Fuel   $24
  • Dump fees  $50
  • Labor  $280

The total Do-it-yourself is $443 plus some hidden costs.

If you can borrow your brother’s pick-up truck and you value labor at zero, you still have the fuel and dump fees at $64, plus the hidden costs of the risk. You’ll need to make two round-trips to the dump, so your time budget goes up to 8 hours.
Junk King Option
The second option is to call a junk hauler like Junk King. The load described above is about one-third a truck load for our large 18 cubic yard trucks. Junk King’s retail cost for a third truck is $328, but most consumers use a $20 coupon from the yellow pages or book on-line for a $30 discount. Therefore, one can comfortably budget $298 with no hidden costs. Junk King provides free estimates and promises to beat any written estimate by 10%.
Other benefits include avoiding the hidden costs of the Do-it-yourself option. Junk King performs all the labor and has workers compensation, general liability, auto insurance, cargo insurance, and necessary dumping permits. Also, Junk King has a network of recyclers.  They stage the unwanted items at our warehouse, donating re-usable items, and then recycling steel and paper. Junk King even has an end-user for the old bathroom tile in the scenario above.  Therefore, Junk King is better than 95% landfill free.  If you tried to replicate their recycling process, you would have to make separate trips to six far-flung facilities and spend time conducting six separate transactions—simply not practical for the Do-it-yourselfer.

Conclusion

If you do not have a truck, if you value your time at more than $13 per hour, and if you would rather keep your junk and debris out of landfills, then you want to call Junk King Fairfax.  (703) 455-3861

Join our quarterly newsletter for more free information and great deals:
Click here.

Neighborhood Cleanup Day

Many homeowner associations (HOAs) sponsor neighborhood cleanup days each year. They encourage neighbors to part with all their junk: old appliances, furniture, and other debris. Sometimes they sponsor the event after a neighborhood yard sale.

Because of the neighborhood volume, the HOA can arrange junk removal much cheaper than individual homeowners can. HOAs have two main options: dumpsters and a junk hauling service like Junk King.

The Dumpster Option
The HOA estimates the amount of volume of debris and rents 20 or 30-yard dumpsters. These dumpsters rent for about $18 to $25 per cubic yard. However, beware of other fees: fuel surcharges, transport fees, and fees for overweight dumpsters that run about $60 per ton or fraction. Nevertheless, dumpsters are much cheaper than homeowners calling for individual service. For example, Waste Management’s Bagsters or AAA’s special pick-ups run about $50 to $60 per cubic yard.

Dumpsters are static. Typically, the HOA places the dumpsters at a common site such as the community pool. The homeowners drag or drive their junk to the dumpster. If they have the strength, they lift their junk over the five-foot dumpster wall or they leave it on the ground.

Dumpsters are “mixed” debris. Homeowners toss all their junk into the same dumpster: steel, paper, wood, plastic—everything. All this mixed debris must go to a landfill, making dumpsters the least green option.

Dumpsters have restrictions. The County typically charges extra fees for mattresses ($10), tires ($7), old TVs ($10-$20), and e-waste ($5). Therefore, dumpsters usually restrict what you can put in them, and they can charge a hefty fee if you dump restricted items.

The Junk King Option
The HOA doesn’t need to worry about estimating volume. Junk King’s crew and 18-cubic yard trucks can take care of jobs as small as two cubic yards or as large as hundreds of cubic yards. In addition to reducing the risk of estimates, our absolute costs are less than dumpsters. We charge a fixed price per volume; we never tack on extra fees.

Our trucks are big and nimble. Our three-man crews are cheerful. The homeowner takes the junk to the curb. Then, our crew does all the labor of getting the junk into the trucks.

Our crew separates the debris. One truck picks up steel, another paper, yard debris, and so on. We collect used furniture for donation to Habitat for Humanity or the HOA’s designated charity.

We have only one restriction: hazardous waste such as asbestos or chemicals. We take everything else, including tires, e-waste, TVs, and mattresses. As a service to the HOA, we absorb the extra disposal fees.

Consequently, Junk King recycles 95.5% of everything we haul. We are the greenest option for a neighborhood cleanup.

Junk King will work with the HOA Board and the property manager to ensure that the neighborhood cleanup day is a great success.

Green Report Card — Zero Land Fill for December and January!

Junk King Fairfax makes the extra effort to reduce the amount of waste going into landfills. In December and January, we were 100% landfill free.

Since June, our metal recycling alone has saved 91,557 pounds of iron ore, 4,394 pounds of limestone, and 51,272 pounds of coal, which generates about one KWH per pound. We delivered 317,336 pounds of biomass to burn for energy, creating more than 512,795 KWHs.

To put these energy contributions in context, a typical Fairfax County home uses 17,000 KWHs of electricity per year. Since June 15, we have contributed enough energy savings to power 33 typical Fairfax homes for a year.

Also, we’ve donated furniture and usable appliances to Habitat for Humanity and needy families.

So far, we’ve collected more than 200 tons of mass and we’ve put less 9 tons into landfills. We recycled more that 191 tons – or 95.5% of all the waste we collected.

We are committed to do even better.

Junk King Fairfax
7361 Lockport Place Suite M
Lorton, VA 22079
Hours: M-F: 8A-6P, Sa: 8A-4P

Providing junk removal services to the Fairfax area, including:

Alexandria
Arlington
Ashburn
Bethesda
Centreville
Chantilly
Fairfax
Falls Church
Herndon
Leesburg
Manassas
Reston
Silver Spring
Springfield
Sterling
Vienna
Washington
Woodbridge
and these nearby zip codes:
20013, 20022, 20023, 20026, 20027, 20029, 20030, 20033, 20035, 20038, 20039, 20040, 20041, 20042, 20043, 20044, 20045, 20046, 20047, 20049, 20050, 20051, 20053, 20055, 20056, 20058, 20061, 20062, 20063, 20065, 20066, 20067, 20068, 20069, 20070, 20071, 20073, 20074, 20075, 20076, 20077, 20078, 20080, 20081, 20082, 20088, 20090, 20091, 20097, 20098, 20108, 20109, 20110, 20111, 20112, 20113, 20120, 20121, 20122, 20146, 20147, 20148, 20151, 20152, 20153, 20163, 20164, 20165, 20166, 20167, 20170, 20171, 20172, 20175, 20176, 20177, 20178, 20190, 20191, 20192, 20194, 20195, 20201, 20203, 20204, 20206, 20207, 20208, 20210, 20211, 20212, 20213, 20214, 20215, 20216, 20218, 20220, 20221, 20222, 20223, 20224, 20226, 20227, 20229, 20230, 20232, 20233, 20235, 20237, 20238, 20239, 20240, 20241, 20244, 20251, 20254, 20260, 20261, 20262, 20265, 20266, 20268, 20277, 20289, 20299, 20301, 20303, 20306, 20307, 20310, 20314, 20318, 20350, 20355, 20370, 20372, 20380, 20388, 20389, 20390, 20391, 20393, 20394, 20395, 20398, 20402, 20403, 20404, 20405, 20406, 20407, 20408, 20409, 20410, 20411, 20412, 20413, 20414, 20415, 20416, 20417, 20418, 20419, 20421, 20423, 20424, 20425, 20426, 20427, 20428, 20429, 20433, 20434, 20435, 20437, 20439, 20440, 20441, 20442, 20444, 20447, 20451, 20453, 20456, 20506, 20510, 20540, 20546, 20551, 20553, 20560, 20565, 20813, 20824, 20827, 20892, 20894, 20907, 20911, 20918, 22030, 22031, 22032, 22033, 22034, 22035, 22036, 22037, 22038, 22041, 22042, 22043, 22044, 22046, 22150, 22151, 22152, 22153, 22160, 22180, 22181, 22182, 22183, 22185, 22191, 22192, 22193, 22194, 22195, 22201, 22202, 22203, 22204, 22205, 22206, 22207, 22210, 22211, 22212, 22213, 22214, 22215, 22216, 22217, 22219, 22222, 22223, 22225, 22226, 22227, 22229, 22230, 22234, 22240, 22241, 22242, 22243, 22244, 22245, 22246, 22301, 22302, 22303, 22304, 22305, 22306, 22307, 22308, 22309, 22310, 22311, 22312, 22314, 22315, 22320, 22332