Category: Recycling

Save Dumpster Space by Donating to Re-Use Stores

Reclaimed. Re-used. Recycled. Whatever term you want to use, there is a thriving business in giving almost everything one more shot at life.

Most communities have at least one store where lightly used cabinetry, furniture, doors, lumber, and, well, everything is bought and sold. Owners upgrading or tearing down can find one last market. Beginning or thrifty owners find useful fixtures or projects.

And everyone wins.

Save dumpster space – and make money – by reselling

 

For the conscientious homeowner or builder, this thriving middle man market means additional savings in multiple ways.

First, every square foot of space saved in the rental dumpster means a small rental or fewer trips to the dump.

Second, some of these shops will pay a modest fee for the items, or they may even arrange to come pick it up for you. This last option can save labor and time – all of which is favorable to the bottom line.

Finally, there is a feeling of satisfaction that comes from knowing you not only saved space at the dump, but you helped out an ambitious homeowner. Your overall footprint, carbon and otherwise, is smaller.

Use it to your advantage

Of course, you don’t have to only be a donor – although it is a smart way to reduce your workload and impact your environment and community.

You could be a patron. When you are embarking on your next project, stop by the local re-purposing store to see if maybe they have something you could use. Is there a door here that fits your building but saves you buying new? You can get it for a fraction of the cost. Is there a mirror that will work over the new sink to give a room the rustic feel you need?

With a little bit of imagination, time, and the investment of some elbow grease, a re-use store can help every part of your next building project be a little better.

Old lumber can be re-used with dramatic effect.

Photo by Dmitry Demidov: https://www.pexels.com/photo/weathered-wooden-surface-with-scratches-on-sunny-day-3800468/

I Found an Old Chemical Barrel Cleaning Out My New Property, What Do I Do?

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You are excited to get out into that  old structure on the back of your new property. There’s lots of junk in there: metal that would have to be scrapped, parts of things that crumbled or broke as you moved them. But you weren’t expecting this.

There under a tarp are a couple of barrels of some sort of liquid. Perhaps you can read the label or perhaps they are covered over with grime and dust from years of neglect. For some reason the previous owner could not dispose of what’s ever inside these barrels, or else they believed it would one day come in handy and kept it safe.

But now it is yours.  and you don’t know what it is.

What should you do?

esist your urge to see

First you have to resist your curious urge to check what is inside. It is natural to want to pry open the lid and have a look at this new mysterious liquid you own. You might be thinking to yourself, “How bad could it be?”

In actuality it could be really bad. After all there is a reason the previous owner did not dispose of it. It is possibly extremely hazardous material. Opening it could pose a hazard to you and others working in that area, and could even make the space uninhabitable.

Worse yet, some sealed materials deteriorate over time, and when you open the barrel, exposing them to oxygen could give them fuel they need to burst into flame.

Call the fire department

If the label on the side of the barrel is clearly labeled and  you can read the numbers,  you should call your local fire department and speak with a firefighter. This firefighter can tell you what exactly is contained in the barrel and what you need to do to safely dispose of it.

If the label on the side of the barrel can’t be read,  firefighters will respond to your location. They will bring the apparatus they need to investigate what’s in that barrel in a way that keeps everyone safe by preventing a fire or sickness from inhaling noxious or dangerous fumes.

It is easy to forget that firefighters strive to prevent problems rather than merely responding to them.  one phone call allows them to do their job and helps to keep you and your property safe.

Let firefighters tell you what is in the barrel. Picture by HafisFox via Pixabay.

 

Disposing of Your Artificial Christmas Tree Responsibly

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Your artificial Christmas tree may save you a trip out in the cold winter weather to cut down or purchase a living one, but after years of sweeping away the plastic needles you may be debating on if it’s time to let it go.

Before tossing it to the curb, consider two more eco-friendly avenues of disposing of your artificial Christmas tree:

Donate it!

Local charities may be open to accommodating your used Christmas tree. While finding ways to sustainably dispose of your tree are good options, donating it for reuse and repurposing is the most eco friendly! Charities such as Goodwill and Salvation Army are good options to start with, so long as your tree is in decent shape. You could also try online buyer-seller avenues such as Facebook marketplace.

Recycle/repurpose it!

While correctly recycling your artificial Christmas tree is a viable option, you should not throw it in with your regular weekly or bi-weekly recycling. This is due to a common component of artificial trees: PVC, a material that many recycling plants cannot properly process. If your city has the capability to process a wider variety of plastics, it is worth checking if they are also able to process your tree. Otherwise, err on the side of caution and call your local recycling center.

Your local recycling center may be able to accommodate a special pickup and disposal of your artificial tree for you. Call ahead to make sure this is an option, but it is likely that there is a source for properly recycling your artificial tree in your area. This will ensure proper handling and processing of the plastic. Before doing this, make sure that you have completely taken down all of your decorations, leaving a bare tree. Leaving non-recyclable items or that can’t be accommodated items on your tree can further disrupt the recycling process.

If neither of those options seem to be the right one for you, feel free to look for inspiration on other websites that give options for repurposing your tree and its parts. While the tree as a whole may not be fit for another year of Christmas/holiday celebration, smaller components like the base or individual branches may be able to be crafted into smaller mantelpieces, centerpieces, or door frame decorations.

Before hastily disassembling your artificial tree and throwing it away, there are many sustainable options you should consider before tossing it to the curb!

Dispose of your artificial Christmas tree responsibly.

Photo by Ryutaro Tsukata from Pexels

Properly Dispose of Your Real Christmas Tree This January

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The Christmas season is winding down, and it’s time for the annual “what do we do with the Christmas tree?” discussion. While you could throw it to the curb to be collected, there are several more sustainable options for you to consider.

The first option is to take it to a composting site. Check with your local composting sites to confirm if they accommodate Christmas trees, and if they do, drive it there to be properly disposed of! Composting centers will know how to most efficiently break down the wood and its parts, rather than a dumpster site that will likely just pile it amongst the other holiday waste produced. Composting will also turn the tree into nutritious soil for other planting endeavors.

Secondly, you could turn it into wood chips for sustainable landscaping. This does require extra equipment, but if you are in need of more mulch for your front yard, look no farther than your tree. The wood chips made from your Christmas tree will also naturally break down in your yard, enriching the soil with the nutrients it contains. If you have a wood chipper available, consider this option as an eco-friendly way to reuse your tree year round.

Another option is to peplant it if it still has the roots. Most Christmas trees are sold pre-cut or in a way that lets you cut it yourself, but in the case that it was sold to you with the roots still attached, there are ways to replant it. Confer with a botanist or plant nursery on the best way to do this, or if there is a place that replants trees.

Lastly, an option you have is to take off the branches and make a wood pile, both as a habitat for animals and insects and for firewood. The dry needles and branches will be quick and easy firewood for your or your neighbors. Creating a pile will also create a small living area for small animals such as chipmunks, and insects and arachnids like beetles and spiders.

All in all, consider alternative options to simply throwing away your real Christmas tree at the end of the holiday season. Though this is only the start of a long list of ways to sustainably dispose of your tree, it is a great starting point as you clean up for the New Year!

 

This is improper Christmas tree disposal

Photo by Simon Berger from Pexels

Affordable Dumpster Rental

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When you are planning your next major project, you begin with a budget in mind. You want to make sure that you can afford the entire project within that budget. Most importantly, you want to leave money to spend on big splash items – the ones that will make your life better every day.

You do not want to waste all of your money on construction cleanup costs.

That is why you will want to spend some time finding an affordable dumpster rental site. One like Big Daddy Dumpsters.

Every size affordable dumpster rental

Sure, you might look twice at the name. You might say to yourself, “I don’t need a ‘big daddy’ dumpster. I just need a regular sized dumpster.”

Good news! When you examine our selection of dumpster sizes, all affordably priced for your next project, you will find three different sizes.

You can review the sizes here.

Whether you decide to go with the 10-yard, 15-yard, or 20-yard options, you will find an affordable and easy-to-manage partner for your construction project.

Big Daddy Dumpsters offers delivery and pickup all under the same affordable rate. We even offer a three-day package for the long weekend project you might have planned.

This three-day package allows you to get the most project for the lowest cost, and all without violating the HOA or annoying your neighbors.

What if I need a big but affordable dumpster

 

Big Daddy Dumpsters has you covered for even the largest project.

Our 20-yard dumpsters are capable worksite dumpsters, holding an amount that our customers have called a “butt load”, a “crap ton”, or just a “whole heckuva lot” of debris from your tear-out or tear-down project.

Better yet, you can arrange to have multiple dumpsters at your large worksite. Or, if the site is small but the work is large, you can plan multiple drop-offs and pick-ups.

Whatever your need, Big Daddy Dumpsters has an affordable trash removal solution.

When you think about low-cost, affordable, cost-effective solutions for your next project, think Big Daddy Dumpsters.

Give us a call today to discuss your next project.

Don’t have a date in mind, but just want to find out more? Great! Call one of our experienced technicians and we can help you decide what size is right for your project based on a description you give us over the phone.

This Spring, Host a Neighborhood Clean-up

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The snow has melted, the leaves are budding, and everyone in the neighborhood has fired up their lawnmowers and leaf blowers for another season of outdoor activity. You even see some new hardware on the block – Stan seems to have gotten a new push mower, and Michael’s apparently switched over to all electric tools.

Further up the street, Mrs. Cooper has plans to take out her trellis.

As you look at the clutter in your own garage, you realize that you might need a dumpster in order to get rid of all the crap you’ve accumulated over the years. The door you took out in the remodel? There’s no place for it in the house now, it is an orphan. That last 8 feet of quarter round? It’s now warped from being under the chicken wire. And the chicken wire? Bent and a little rusted from years of anticipation but no real duties.

Then a brilliant idea forms.

You could host a Neighborhood clean-up day

You’ve noticed that other people are in the same situation you are in. Their basements and garages are cluttered. (Well, not Trevor. Trevor’s is spotless, like everything else. But that’s how he deals with his own issues.) And they have projects they would like to do, but they just need a friendly shove in the right direction.

What if you announced a date, and got a few neighbors to go in on a dumpster for the neighborhood?

Suddenly you and your neighbors are sharing the cost of waste disposal, and providing a big push towards getting your neighborhood spruced up all at the same time.

Here’s how to do it:

  • Choose a date a month from now and circulate it through word of mouth or with a door flier
  • Ask people to let you know the things they hope to be able to throw away
  • Work with local re-use agencies like St. Vincent DePaul to set up a way to donate items that can still be used
  • Work with a Big Daddy Dumpster representative to determine the right size dumpster for whatever remains
  • Ask people to provide a contribution toward the dumpster.

When dividing the cost, don’t worry about precision and fair cost – you’ll never get the math to work out perfectly, and why would you want to? Instead, just ask people for what they think is fair. What you will find in the end is that you likely recover the full cost, and you have enough to buy food for a Saturday Evening cookout.

Dumpster Rental Prices

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When you are planning a significant building or renovation project, you want to carefully consider all of the costs involved.

These costs include, but are not limited to, the materials you will need, the tools you will rent or purchase, and the labor costs if you are hiring help. Of course,even if it is just you and a few friends who are demolishing an old garage, there are the expenses of pizza and beer, or White Claw, depending on your friends.

There is one last expense to consider as well.

You may have initially thought that your project could end up on the curb, in garbage bags or a handful of rolling trash cans borrowed from neighbors. But you’re wrong.

Most curbside waste companies have strict limits on what you can take to the curb and what they will haul away on trash day.

Rumpke limits garbage day haul

Rumpke, Southwest Ohio’s largest garbage removal agency, has strict rules for what it can and can’t take away.

This includes rules for how much they will haul away from your job site or home on garbage day. Their rules cap hauling at six large, 32 gallon bins each garbage day.

Sure, that’s a lot of garbage! Most average families fill one of these a week. Some especially active families who eat out a lot more than others might need a second of these containers after a particularly busy week.

But still, that is a lot of garbage. And your project might call for this amount of waste removal, raising a second question. Where would you get six of these containers?

This means that in order to reach the maximum, you would have to invest in a few more cans than you already have, then keep and store them forever afterwards. Most people will find it easier to rent a dumpster instead.

A ten yard rolloff dumpster, our most common rental type, holds ten times as much as you can put curbside with Rumpke. This means that one curbside roller saves you from having to plan how to fill up and set out 6 bins each week for ten weeks.

Ten weeks of maximum garbage hauling fits in our smallest bin.

So Big Daddy Dumpsters does not just save you money, Big Daddy Dumpsters saves you that most precious commodity: time.

Check out Big Daddy Dumpster prices versus curbside

Here are the equivalent costs and sizes for the intrepid and determined do-it-yourselfer, assuming you start with one 32 gallon bin provided by Rumpke.

10 cubic yards = 5 x 32 gallon bins = $125 dollars  / 10 weeks

15 cubic yards = 5 x 32 gallon bins = $125 / 15 weeks

20 cubic yards = 5 x 32 gallon bins = $125 / 20 weeks

Can you imagine spreading your project out over several months, when you could have the convenience of getting a dumpster delivered, filled up, and hauled away in a matter of days?

We can’t either. Call today!

Rent A Dumpster Near Me

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You or your company has a big project coming up. Maybe it’s a remodel or a demolition. Maybe it’s a building project.

You need a dumpster. Where to look?

Of course you can start with searching the big names in dumpster rentals.

1-800-Got-Junk?

1-800-Got-Junk is a national leader in dumpster and bag rental. They are able to be everywhere because they are a company that sells their brand as a franchise. Local owner-operators pay to use their branding and get their references, then do the work under their “Got Junk?” branding.

The Got Junk? brand received a lot of national attention for their involvement with the popular series Hoarders. In that series, psychologists and waste removal companies teamed up with family members to  address serious hoarding in the home of a loved one. the show Android a popular run, earning the got Junk brand a lot of publicity. while the company can supply labor, it cannot apply the kind of mental help that is necessary to get someone over clinical hoarding.

Hopefully that’s not what you need for your project!

You can click here to go to their website.

Waste Management

One of the nation’s largest dumpster and waste removal companies, their familiar green and yellow W & M logo can be seen almost everywhere in the United States. If you have ever seen a large green dumpster outside of a construction site, it was likely theirs.

Their national model seems attractive, but the moving company Move.org recently rated them 4 stars (out of 5) because of their “middle-of-the-road customer reviews.”

As is common with many dumpster rental companies, they are focused on providing you the last part of the puzzle – junk removal. You will need to apply the elbow grease to get the work done and get the debris out to the dumpster yourself.

Click here to go the Waste Management website.

Big Daddy Dumpster

In some parts of the country, users can take advantage of Big Daddy Dumpsters. Specializing in three sizes of Residential and Commercial dumpsters oh, Big Daddy Dumpster saves you money by limiting the options, bells, and whistles from which you have to choose.

By offering one price, based on the size of the dumpster, you get a straightforward picture of the cost of your project.

They won’t provide extra hands for the work, or dedicated recycling bins. What they will offer is a single, understandable price, clearly broken down in their conversation with you.

Click here to visit the Big Daddy Dumpster website.

Of course, you can always simply search on Google for the dumpster rental nearest you, and take your chances with what you find nearby.

Google search “dumpster rental near me”.

However, many people like the peace of mind that comes from using a trusted brand with years of experience and a commitment to staying in business for the long haul – even if it’s just the haul from your project to the landfill.

 

 

Junk Removal

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Suddenly find yourself in possession of a lot of junk? Doing a major remodel or rebuild and about to create a pile of junk?

 

You need the Cincinnati, Dayton, and southwest Ohio junk removal experts: Big Daddy Dumpters.

 

When a little dumpster simply isn’t enough, and you need enough space to fit an entire room, Big Daddy Dumpsters is the answer.

 

With three options, ranging from big to humongous, Big Daddy Dumpsters has your dumpster solutions for all of your projects.

 

 

Home projects

 

Are you deciding whether it is time to throw out a mattress? Read about that here.

 

Is your mattress removal part of a bedroom remodel? Learn how to dispose of that here.

 

What about a major dining room remodel? We describe the choices you might need to make here.

 

In fact, at the Big Daddy Dumpsters blog, we have the answers to solve a lot of common questions that arise during common home remodeling scenarios.

 

 

Larger projects

 

Maybe it’s not an individual room, but a whole house or neighborhood you’re working on. Maybe you’re planning for a garage sale for yourself or for your neighborhood?

 

When you’re doing that, you’re going to want to know which stuff can be donated, and which stuff you need to throw away. It can’t all go to the curb.

 

This is when a small, medium, or large dumpster can come in handy, depending on the size of your project, or your neighborhood garage sale.

 

 

Worried about Green Recycling?

 

Are you thinking about the environment these days? Many of us are.

 

We are smarter than ever about how to dispose of potentially hazardous materials, and we have more resources available for safe disposal than any other generation.

 

Our blog can offer you information about a range of potentially hazardous materials. Follow these links to articles about the identified topics to be sure that you don’t throw away something that could potentially harm workers or get into the groundwater near your home.

 

 

These and many other common topics are available at our website, where our searchable blog can help you find the answers you are looking for.

 

And always, when it comes time to throw something away, Big Daddy Dumpsters can offer you speedy service and delivery.

 

Have a dumpster ready when you need it for your project.

How Do I Throw Out a Mercury Thermometer?

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You know that you are supposed to be careful when disposing of mercury. But why? And what if it comes in such a tiny amount as what is in a thermometer?

Mercury is a toxic element that has confounded and enticed people since its discovery. The element 80, with the abbreviation Hg, has long been associated with speed. This is because, at room temperatures, it holds together well and glides almost without friction over a surface.

This speed, combined with its color, earned it the nickname “quicksilver.”

Because even water would not stick to it, a popular use for mercury in the past was to treat felt hats. Hatters would rub the element onto the felt surface, making the hat virtually waterproof.

Over time, though, the effect of daily interaction was very pronounced on hatters. They tended to suffer from mental illness or “lunacy” at a high rate, which was the basis for the term “mad as a hatter.” Mercury was the culprit.

Mercury in thermometers

Mercury was also very responsive to changes in temperature. If it got hotter, it would expand. Cooler, it would contract. It became the most common ingredient in home thermometers, as a reliable and sensitive gage of temperature.

However, as the EPA and global environmental groups came to realize, mercury was causing a host of other illnesses in people.

Worse yet, when dumped in the environment, mercury did not break down.

Instead, it steadily made its way to water, remaining in its original form. There it sat until ingested by fish, or the things that fish ate. Then people ate those fishes. As our testing became more sensitive, we came to realize this mercury in the environment threatened our health. This led to a ban on the use of mercury in 2008, with the goal of not using it in the US and limiting its use around the world.

What if I happen across some mercury?

Despite the ban, mercury is still around us. It can be found in an old home science kit, or a thermometer that your mom has used for decades.

If you find mercury in any form while you are cleaning out the basement or a parent’s house, including a trace amount in an old thermometer, there are specific rules for disposal.

Your community likely offers one or more ways to safely dispose of this dangerous element. A quick guide from the EPA is available here: https://www.epa.gov/mercury/storing-transporting-and-disposing-mercury

A search in your phone book or online should reveal a local drop-off site for your hazardous material.

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