Start a Junk Removal Business

Disposal Destination Log

Companion to the lesson "Four destinations: sorting every load." One page per week; the offset row makes the back-end visible.

Week of:  

Sorting log (decide at the curb, not at the dump)

Item / categoryDestination (S / D / SC / DU)Weight (lbs)Fee paid $Income collected $Listed same day?
     
     
     
     
     
     

Destinations: S sell (solid wood furniture, working appliances, tools, exercise equipment, patio sets, mid-century anything; photograph before it touches the trailer, list the same day, price to move in a week; unsold in two weeks moves on) · D donate (clean working items; Habitat ReStore takes building materials; donated items never cross the scale) · SC scrap (steel ~$120-230/ton by grade and yard; a ~200-lb washer is roughly $12-18; non-ferrous worth several times steel by weight; keep a scrap bin for cords, radiators, copper pipe) · DU dump (what remains, at your glovebox rates). Refuse trash with ambition: water-damaged particleboard, mattresses, tube TVs, and 1990s entertainment centers do not sell.

Weekly offset row

LineThis week
Dump fees paid (destination four)
Scrap income collected (destination three)
Resale income collected (destination one)
Fees avoided via donation (destination two, estimated at your per-ton rate)
Back-end offset

A $75 dresser pulled from a job you were already paid to clear is pure margin with no disposal cost attached. Operators report resale and recycling offsetting a meaningful share of disposal costs when sorting is consistent.

Circuit planner (plan the route, not the trip)

☐ Donation center first☐ Scrapyard second☐ Landfill last, trailer as light as the day allowed

Two dump runs a day instead of four is an hour saved, and the hour is the margin. Refrigerant appliances: pass the surcharge through by name from your fee schedule, or make certified recovery your eventual add-on.