The Junk Box: Picking Up Your Recycling in Victoria

I was born and raised in Victoria and started The Junk Box Rubbish Removal business in 1987. I have traveled to enough places to know that Victoria offers a unique, spectacular beauty all of its own and I do not take this for granted. Victoria is where I have chosen to stay and raise my family, and I want it to remain a clean and healthy place for my kids and for our future generations to thrive.

– Dale Branson, Owner.

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With each year that passes, and through increased awareness, education, and media, the citizens of Victoria, in conjunction with the CRD, have had to re-think and re-develop ways of Reducing, Reusing and Recycling unwanted items and materials. This means developing a holistic and proactive plan of reducing amounts of waste in landfill and keeping toxic waste out of our water and soils, keeping Victoria a clean and sustainable environment. As we all know, there is only so much capacity at these dump sites and we are getting dangerously full! With improved methods and systems of disposal and recycling over the years, it has made it easier for my business to keep unwanted items, recyclables, and toxic materials out of the landfill. This is good news for everyone and every living thing!

We Practice What We Preach

At The Junk Box, we pride ourselves on keeping on top of ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle through available recycling facilities and donation outlets for the less fortunate in our community. Further, we dispose of materials that are considered toxic to our environment at specialized facilities in efforts to reduce the impact or “ecological footprint” we leave on our environment.

Photos of loading junk

What You Can Do To Help

There are particular items that are not taken by the CRD blue bag/ blue box program and yet they should not be disposed of carelessly in mainstream residential garbage pick-up. Familiarize and educate yourself on proper disposal of items. It’s a learning curve we all need to participate in to make the “green” program effective. The CRD Hartland Landfill website offers a wealth of knowledge about proper disposal, what services they offer, or where to find those services!

Here is some expanded information on ways you can help support the environment by proper disposal of these items. Here is a list of items we have inquiries about:

Giant teddy bear and Dale with Dog

Pharmaceuticals

Dispose of pharmaceuticals in a safe and responsible manner. Pharmacists have a designated stewardship program in place for safe, effective, environmentally responsible disposal of such things.

If you have expired or unused prescribed or over-the-counter medications, please return them to the pharmacy. Most pharmacies WILL take these medications back, including creams, lotions, eye drops, etc. Do not flush them down the toilet and into our precious water systems. Prevent leeching of medications into our landfill areas by bringing them back to the pharmacy.

Pharmacies will also take back sharps in proper sharps containers. Do not allow for them to become a hazard.

Batteries

The chemicals and toxic compounds in batteries is clearly a hazard to all living things. Rechargeable batteries are always a good option for reducing waste, however, even these don’t last forever. Develop a way of saving up your used batteries and doing a periodic drop-off to one of the places listed below for proper disposal:

Loading yard waste into back of truck

Electronics

TVs, video and electronic equipment, office equipment, stereos, and computer equipment can all impact the environment harshly not only by taking up space in landfill, but also by releasing toxic chemicals from the components they are made up of. In turn, these chemicals leech into the soil and into our drinking water and waterways.

Some examples of items we take for recycling are:

Computers, Televisions, VCR/DVD players
Cameras/Camcorders, Stereo equipment, speakers
Battery powered ride-on toys

Telephones, IT telecom devices
Amplifiers/Mixers, Electric guitars
Blood pressure monitors
Lamps, Hair dryers, Clock radios

If you are simply replacing your equipment and have no use for the old, you might want to consider selling it online or donating it to the many charitable organizations in our community (depending on their policies for electronics). If repair is out of the question, there are a few businesses that will take a broad selection of used electronic equipment supply:

London Drugs will specifically take old cameras, computers, and monitors. Bell World and Island Return It will take old cell phones off your hands.

Fully loaded back of junk box truck

Paint

Common household, non-industrial, paint is even considered toxic to our environment and proper disposal of it is required, but is also made easy! Here are a few facilities that offer paint disposal:

Motor oil can be disposed of at Hartland Landfill Recycling Facility.

Styrofoam

Stuck with styrofoam? Most people are! Try to avoid this type of packaging if possible. There are some places that take styrofoam though it’s a product not easily recycled. Here are a number of places that do take styrofoam:

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Light Bulbs

The CRD website has some very useful information on light bulb disposal; what types and where to dispose of them.

In general, you can take light bulbs to:

Mattresses and Box Springs

Believe it or not, these too can be brought to certain facilities for recycling! Hartland Recycling Facility or Ellice Recycling will take these items off your hands for a fee.

Clothing

Whether it’s an annual spring clean, kids having frequent growth spurts or the remaining effects of an estate clean-up, people tend to end up with an excess of clothes. Provided the clothing is in reasonable to good condition there are several different options to consider for your used clothing. Hand-me-downs to neighbours can be helpful for growing young families. Consignment stores have popped up throughout Victoria and have become a popular choice for some people. Another popular, and very worthwhile, option is to donate clothing to charitable organizations throughout the city for those in need. You can donate used clothing and sometimes other household effects and furniture to:

What We Can Do To Help

All the above mentioned items are just some of the details to consider when disposing of things. We at The Junk Box Junk Removal Service can help to simplify things for you and make a big job look EASY. Hesitate no longer and give us a call! We are proficient junk experts, getting your stuff to where it needs to go quickly, courteously, and correctly! Fees associated with disposal and recycling are incorporated into our low cost pricing.

Call Dale, your local junk removal expert!

Say Goodbye to Clutter.