4 Questions to Ask When Looking for a Waste Collection Provider

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Trash TruckDo you live in an area that does provide trash removal services? Are you a business owner having trouble finding a trash removal provider? Having waste is a normal part of life and it shouldn’t be something to worry about. Here at Elite Junk Removal, we provide reliable trash removal services and we believe that finding a waste collection provider should be easy. We’ve compiled the questions you should be asking when shopping around for trash removal services.

How often is trash removed?

Many trash removal services collect waste once a week, some come less frequent and some come more frequently. By gauging home much trash you will have each week, you will be able to figure out how often you need your trash removal company to come. Be sure to hire a company that can keep up with the amount of waste you have so you can avoid trash falling out of the dumpster.

Where does the trash collection truck drop the trash off after it is collected?

Towns and cities have procedures set in place so that trash and waste is disposed of properly. Typically a local dump, a reputable company should be able to inform you where they dispose of any and all waste they collect.

Does the company provide recycling services?

Many waste removal companies also provide recycling services to reduce the amount of trash that goes into landfills and to help our environment. Ask your potential trash collector if they offer recycling services, if they are an extra cost and how much they are, as well as what types of items they recycle.

What items are included in waste pick up?

All waste removal companies have a set list of items they will pick up, as well as items they won’t pick up. These can differ depending on the company and any local ordinances, as well as the dump they drop the waste off at. One of the first questions to ask is what items are included in the waste removal services to be sure that the items you might be throwing away over time will be collected or not.

Elite Services Junk Removal & Demolition provides both trash removal services and recycling services to residential homeowners and business owners. Contact us at (978) 317-5388 today to schedule your services!

Carpet Removal Tips

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After years of heavy traffic, carpet can get very worn down and will eventually need to be replaced. To save a little bit of money, a lot of homeowners opt to remove the old carpet themselves, which is a great DIY project but a lot of people do not know how to remove carpet properly. With these tips, you’ll have yours removed without damaging the underlying floor or the walls in your home!

Tools You Will Need to Remove Your Carpet

The first step to doing any project properly is to make sure you are prepared with the proper tools to do it. There are only a few essential tools you will need to pull up your own carpet. Before you begin tearing up your carpet, make sure you have the following on hand:

  • Protective gloves
  • Protective eyewear
  • Pliers
  • Crowbar
  • Utility knife
  • Floor scraper

Tips for Removing Your Carpet

The key to removing a carpet is to work efficiently and use your tools properly. Follow our tips to have your carpet removed in no time!

  • Wear all protective eyewear and gloves as soon as you begin the project to avoid dust or allergen irritation.
  • Make sure all furniture is cleared from the room to make the removal process easier and faster.
  • Remove and baseboards/moldings/heater covers that might be covering the edges of your carpet.
  • Start with the pulling up the edge of the carpet using your pliers.
  • Use your crowbar to pull up the tack strips that are holding down your carpet.
  • As you pull up the carpet, use your utility knife to cut it into small pieces to make it easier to carry out of the room.
  • If the carpet padding is held down with staples, use your pliers to pull them out; if it’s glued down, use a floor scraper to pull it up.

Disposing of Your Old Carpet

Once you’ve removed your carpet, the next step is to dispose of it. There is likely a lot of debris leftover, and more than your town or private trash route will take. Hiring a professional junk removal service gets the old carpet out of your home so that you can move onto installing your new floors. To ensure it is disposed of through the proper channels and to avoid frustration, call our team at Elite Services Junk Removal & Demolition today at 978-317-5388.

old electronics

A Guide to Recycling Common Household Items

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household recyclablesThe average individual produces an average of 5 pounds of waste a day and most of that waste is in fact recyclable. If every person across the United States was more conscious of the proper ways to dispose of these items, garbage wouldn’t be as big as a problem as it currently is. Recycling not only saves space in our landfills but also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Another positive of recycling – less resources are used recycling an item into something usable compared to the resources used to dispose of trash at a landfill.

Here are several common household items that can be recycled and how to go about recycling them correctly:

1. Batteries

The materials that batteries are made up of contribute to pollution when they aren’t disposed of through the proper channels, especially when they break down in landfills. Most libraries, battery or electronics stores, and even your local grocery store will take your household batteries and ensure they will be recycled properly.

2. Books

Stop throwing your books away! If you no longer want a stack of books in your house, bring them to your local library, donate them in a book drop box, or take them apart and recycle them through your towns recycling center.

3. Ink Cartridges

Like batteries, many ink cartridges are made up of toxic materials that shouldn’t be sitting at landfills. Most business supply stores (Staples, Office Depot, Best Buy) will have bins inside of their store to drop your old ink cartridges for recycling and oftentimes, they’ll give you a discount on your ink purchase when you recycle your old cartridges!

4. CFL Lightbulbs

As many homeowners are switching their compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) bulbs out for more efficient options, such as LED light bulbs, many CFL bulbs are not being disposed of correctly. CFL’s actually contain a small amount of mercury which means they can’t be thrown out in your trash or in your curbside recycling. Instead, they need to be recycled through a hazardous waste facility. Not sure where one is? You can drop your CFL bulbs off at Lowe’s or Home Depot and they’ll dispose of them for you!

5. Glasses & Eyewear

Have you recently updated your eyeglasses to a new pair? Instead of throwing yours away, donate them! There are so many individuals that cannot afford a pair of eyeglasses so they depend on people like you! Drop them off at a local eye doctor or glasses place – if they don’t take them, they’ll be able to point you in the right direction. If your glasses are broken to the point of no repair, treat them as you would any other plastic item and recycle them just like you would a plastic bottle.

6. Kitchen Appliances

Replacing your broken or outdated appliances with new ones? Recycling your old ones can be a drag, but it’s worth it. There are three ways you can go about this – sell them, donate them, or recycle them.

Don’t want to deal with the recycling process? Give Elite Junk Removal & Demolition a call today at 978-317-5388. We won’t just ensure your items are recycled through the proper channels, but will also remove any other junk you need gone!

man dragging trash can

Benefits of Hiring Private Waste Removal

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Trash TruckIt’s no secret that American’s produce a lot of waste. Each week, most people sit their trash by the curb to be carried away and buried out of sight, never to be thought of again. This system of trash removal has led to major consequences in our environment, but there’s finally another option. Private waste removal comes with multiple benefits and helping the environment just so happens to be one of them!

Environmentally Friendly

Private waste removal companies help people make the most out of their trash. This means separating recyclables and compostable items before shipping the trash to the landfill. Of course, people should begin that sorting process on their own, but private waste removal companies are designed to find the pieces that you miss. The additional sorting process greatly reduces the amount of actual trash being sent to landfills and optimizing the recycling processes available to us. The remaining trash is then compacted to reduce the amount of space taken up at the landfill. At the rate that we’re currently overfilling our landfills and running out of room for all of our waste, this compacting is more beneficial than you know.

Customizable Waste Collection

Private waste removal is for anyone and everyone. The customizable process allows contractors and individuals alike to hire waste collection companies, no matter the volume or materials they need removed. Traditional trash removal is uniform and can’t be customized to meet your needs which leaves many individuals and companies without their needs being met.

Supporting the Local Economy

By hiring a private waste removal company you’re supporting a local business rather than a wealthy municipal business. Those who benefit from your business are people just like you. If you have to spend money for waste removal, wouldn’t you rather see it go to a good cause? Local businesses typically offer much better customer service as well because they value and recognize the importance of each and every customer on their roster.

Competitive Pricing

You might assume that private waste removal is out of your budget, but that isn’t the case. Private waste removal companies understand that people can’t spend an arm and a leg on waste removal, so their prices are often competitive with traditional waste removal. If you have the ability to be more environmentally friendly and support a local business without breaking the bank, why wouldn’t you?

Are you looking for waste removal for your home or business is Salem, Lynn, Peabody, or Beverly? Give Elite Services Junk Removal & Demolition a call today at 978-317-5388.

The Dangers of Doing Your Own Demolition

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Spending time at home can inspire you to change things up. Maybe you want to make your kitchen more spacious. Maybe your bathroom is long overdue for an update. The possibilities are endless! Many big projects require you to take things apart before you put them back together, though. Home demolition projects should not be taken lightly. It’s all too easy to accidentally damage your home far more than you intended. There are some dangers in particular that you should watch out for if you are attempting your own demolition.

Damaging Your Home 

First and foremost, if you aren’t familiar with the process of demolition, you can easily destroy things unintentionally. Ensuring that you only remove the things you want is a delicate process. You can’t just go at a wall with a hammer and expect everything to go well. There’s a process to safely demolishing any part of your home. 

Collapsing Roofs

One particularly devastating demolition accident is the act of breaking a support wall. Some walls and beams in your home are much more important than others. If you damage a structural wall, you can easily cause your roof to collapse. That kind of repair can easily be ten times more expensive than hiring a demolition professional to demolish a wall safely. 

Unexpected Wires or Pipes

The older your home, the more likely it is that pipes and electrical wires have been run in unexpected places. Breaking open a wall to reveal a now-cracked and leaking pipe will put all your demolition plans on hold. If you run into wiring, instead, you could get electrocuted before you know what’s happening. Even if you don’t accidentally damage these structures, you will still have to deal with either patching up the wall or moving them. It’s easier to have a professional help you strategize where to demolish in the first place. 

Asbestos or Lead Exposure

Many homes built as late as the 1980s have asbestos and lead throughout the construction. If you’re not sure whether your home is at risk, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Lead and asbestos are both deeply toxic. Breathing in particles without safety gear can cause cancer and illness. Demo teams are fully prepared for this kind of situation, and they already have protective gear on hand. 

Injury 

The process of demolition can be hazardous to your safety. Knocking down walls and tearing out floors involves a lot of muscle power and some serious tools. It’s easy to seriously hurt yourself with falling materials or a poorly-swung sledgehammer. You can also pull muscles, get plaster dust in your eyes, or even electrocute yourself if you’re not careful. Experienced demo teams know how to stay safe and avoid getting hurt. They can take care of your whole demolition without anyone getting hurt. 

Don’t hesitate to hire a demo team to take care of the demolition side of your project for you. Elite Services Junk Removal & Demolition knows how to take things apart efficiently, quickly, & safely, and then remove all debris from the site. Let us do the dirty work for you, and book your appointment today. 978-317-5388

The 4 Top Reasons to Recycle

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recyclingDid you know that only about 64% of paper and cardboard ends up getting recycled? Unfortunately, the U.S. is often behind when it comes to both understanding what can be recycled, and then actually taking the steps to recycle these items.

Recycling is important, for more reasons than you might think. Here’s why.

Reduces Waste

Did you know that the average American throws out about eight pounds of trash every day? Recycling common household items can help us re-use our resources rather than continue to overload existing landfills. And if Americans fully recycled all the paper they used each year, 782 million more trees would be saved.

Better for the Environment

The Ocean Conservancy estimates that there’s about 150 million tons of plastic in our oceans right now, with another 8 tons on the way each and every year. It can take decades for plastic to fully break down, and in the meantime, it frequently serves as a choking or environmental hazard. Scientists have noted that plastic often gets broken down into particles that are ingested by fish—that often end up on our plate. Recycling plastic can help cut down on oceanic pollution.

Saves Energy

Did you know that manufacturing with recycled aluminum requires 95% less energy? Consider the process of retrieving aluminum. First, it has to be mined from the earth—an expensive procedure. Then it has to be treated with chemical processes, etc., to separate the ore from everything else. Only then does it reach the point of being ready for manufacturing. A recycled item, though, is already ready for manufacturing. A single ton of recycled aluminum saves the same amount of energy that the average American home would use in 10 years.

Slow Down Climate Change

As the materials in landfills begin to break down, they release gases into the air. These gases then enter the atmosphere and contribute to climate change. Properly recycling solid waste can help prevent the acceleration of the greenhouse effect that is warming up our planet at an unsustainable rate. As an example: a single office recycling all its paper for a year reduces its carbon footprint by the equivalent of 370 cars.

What steps do you plan to take to recycle better in your local community? Contact our team at Elite Junk Removal & Demolition Services today at 978-317-5388.

Tips To Help De-clutter Your Bathroom

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When it comes to decluttering or removing junk from your home, the chances are that your situation is much more different than other people. The severity of junk in someone’s home can range from a single couch to a house covered and filled with unused and cluttered junk.

Some people also seem to have problems within different rooms of a home. This got us thinking about some ways to you can declutter and clean up your bathroom. If you’re having trouble finding your toothbrush or even your shampoo then this is a major sign that something needs to change.

Follow these tips to help get rid of that junk and declutter your bathroom:

Remove Old Bottles: We don’t understand why but so many people for whatever reason leave empty bottles in the bathroom. Over time these can accumulate and out of nowhere you’ll have a ton covered in your bathroom. They take up space and can cause problems if they get knocked down when showering.

Old Towels & Rags: White towels and rags which have changed color should be removed. They reduce space and really hurt the overall look and feel of a bathroom.

Unnecessary Items: Look through your bathroom and look for things which you simply aren’t using. Items which you aren’t using from televisions, and radios to phones and other items take up space and can also be dangerous. If there is no need for something to be in your bathroom throw it out or find another home for it.

Junk Removal Specialist: A junk removal professional is the perfect choice when you’re looking to get rid of extra clutter within a bathroom. From simple things that are scattered throughout your bathroom to maybe a heavy chest that you want to remove, consult a junk removal specialist to see what they can do for you.

For more information about what Elite Services Junk Removal & Demolition can do for you, please feel free to reach out over the phone at 978-317-5388 or fill out our online contact form.

hoarding living room

The Dangers of Hoarding

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Hoarding not only causes people to live a lower quality of life and has a negative impact on mental health, but it can also actually affect your physical safety. Hoarding is an issue that requires time, concentration, and a professional junk removal service to solve. Once a person puts the time & effort into eliminating the clutter, they can go on to live their best life in a healthy home.

Mold & Infestations

One of the main issues with hoarding is the sanitary element. If floors and surfaces are piled with various junk, it is not possible that they are being sterilized properly, and you never know what you might have accidentally left lying around that is not aging well. The possibility for mold & insect or rodent infestations is very high in hoarding situations. Along with arranging a junk removal service for your cleanout, you may want to have an exterminator in mind as well.

Getting Crushed or Trapped

Hoarding often means that items are piled as high as the ceiling in some places of the home. Even something that seems minor, like a stack of papers, can be hazardous if it falls on a person. These piles can even end up blocking air vents and effecting ventilation, and also raise at which a fire can spread.

Fires

If a house trapped by hoarding catches on fire, the danger level is even higher than average. As previously mentioned, you can easily be trapped among the clutter with no way of escaping. Along with putting the residents at risk, this puts emergency responders at an even higher risk.

Ventilation Issues

If clutter inadvertently blocks an air vent, this can be lethal without you even knowing. Air vents are in place to ensure proper ventilation of the gases we should and should not be breathing in. If they are not able to work properly, you could end up breathing in toxic fumes such as carbon dioxide.

Will You Need a Junk Removal Service?

In almost all cases of hoarding, the help of a junk removal service is necessary to dispose of the junk accumulated. You might consider renting a dumpster or just hiring a removal service to come and remove the items. Elite Services & Demolition is happy to help you or your family members out of the hoarding trap and into a healthier home. Call today and we can talk about your needs! 978-317-5388

cleaning out garage

Why You Should Clean Out for 2020

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The start of a new year is a great time to revamp all areas of your life. You’ve probably begun working on new years resolutions related to your health or daily routine, but what about resolutions related to your home? Cleaning out your home in 2020 gives you a fresh start not just for the new year, but for the new decade too! 

More Room in Your Garage

Your garage should be a multi-functional space that holds your vehicle, outdoor tools, and much more. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy for your garage to become a catch-all for the things you aren’t quite sure what to do with. By clearing out some of the junk in your garage, you’ll have more space for things that you actually need, such as parking your car or working on DIY projects! Look through your garage for items that are broken, damaged, unused, and unneeded. 

Less Clutter

The interior of your home likely needs to be cleaned out even more than the exterior garage space! Our homes fill with clutter that gets put into closets, cupboards, and drawers to be dealt with another time. Now is that time! Begin one room at a time and sort through the items in your home. A good rule of thumb to follow includes two tips: 

  1. If the item no longer brings you joy, you shouldn’t keep it. 
  2. If the item hasn’t been used in over a year, you no longer need it. 

Things that you’ve been holding onto for a time “just in case” when you might need it, are things that bring clutter to your home. Be realistic with yourself about what you need and use and clear out the rest! A clutter-free home promotes better mental health and will make keeping the house clean much easier. 

It’s Easier Than You Think!

Some people avoid cleaning out their homes because they think it’s an impossibly big project, but cleaning out your home is easier than you think! You should go into the cleaning project with an open mind and plenty of time on your hands in case you need to take breaks in between rooms or spaces. Another great way to make the project go smoothly is to hire a professional junk removal service. Elite Services Junk Removal is happy to provide extra helping hands and an on-site dumpster to make removing the junk you don’t need easier than you ever thought possible! 

Give us a call at 978-317-5388 to learn more about junk removal services around Swampscott, MA and let’s schedule your cleanout today! 

Garage Cleaning Tips

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houseAs an area of your home that can be easily avoided, garages are known for being an area that stuff piles up quickly. Before you know it, you no longer have space to park your cars. Between trash barrels and children’s scooters to landscape tools and sports gear, items that aren’t being used on a daily basis pile up quickly. Out of sight, out of mind. Take your garage back this spring by following these tips or hiring Elite Junk Removal & Demolition to do a complete garage cleanout for you.

 

Don’t Treat Your Garage as a Dumping Ground

Garages are an area of a home that has a large amount of space and doesn’t need to be utilized every day. If you’ve noticed it’s harder to fit your car in the garage or find yourself parking in the driveway more frequently, it’s time to reevaluate the space: you probably have too much stuff. With the warm weather right around the corner, it’s the perfect time to do a deep clean. Pull all of your stuff out of the garage, sweep it clean, and only put back the items you need and donate the rest!

Have a “Home” for Everything

When you don’t have a designated area to store your things, clutter is bound to stack up. After cleaning your space, utilize various storage solutions and give each of your belongings a designated space to “live” in order to eliminate the potential for another mess.

Don’t Keep Items You Might Use

We all have a few items in our garage that we haven’t used in years but refuse to part with. By keeping these items, space is being taken up that would be better utilized for items you use on a more frequent basis. If it’s not a seasonal item (i.e. snowblower, lawnmower, shovels, etc.), donate it!

If you need help cleaning out your garage or have items that you no longer want, give Elite Services Junk Removal a call today at 978-317-5388.