A Trash Man's Blog

​Carpet recycling is important for several reasons. Firstly, carpets are made from various materials, including synthetic fibers and backing materials, which can take a long time to decompose in landfills. By recycling carpets, we can divert them from landfills and reduce the amount of waste that ends up in these already overcrowded spaces.

Secondly, carpet recycling helps conserve natural resources. Many carpets are made from non-renewable resources such as petroleum-based synthetic fibers. By recycling carpets, we can recover these valuable materials and reduce the need for extracting and processing new resources. This contributes to the conservation of energy and reduces the environmental impact associated with resource extraction.

Furthermore, carpet recycling can have positive effects on air and water quality. When carpets are incinerated or left to decompose in landfills, they can release harmful chemicals and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Recycling carpets prevents these pollutants from being released, thus improving air quality. Additionally, recycling can prevent the leaching of chemicals from carpets into groundwater, protecting water sources and ecosystems.

Overall, carpet recycling is important for waste reduction, resource conservation, and environmental protection. It helps create a more sustainable and circular economy by giving carpets a second life and minimizing their negative impact on the environment.

     I just had to share this blog about greenhouse gasses and backyard composting.  We are all worried about what we hear in the news, that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is contributing to global warming and I know that hot composting (aerobic composting) creates co2.  What I didn't know is that methane and nitrous oxide are magnitudes worse than co2.  As long as we are composting and not producing those gasses from landfilling organic waste, we are doing the earth a much greater service, because most of the carbon is staying in the compost and will then stay in the ground when it is added to our soil.  Please check out the blog post if you are a nerd like me.  https://www.gardenmyths.com/composting-climate-change/
​     Thanks so much and happy composting.

     When you need to get rid of dirt, concrete, brick, rocks, or asphalt, the size we rent out is a 10 cubic yard Lowboy.  (It's the one that is all the way on the right)  The reason for this is that this dumpster is specifically designed to handle that kind of weight.  It's 8 feet wide, 16 feet long, and 2 feet deep.  If it's filled up all the way to the height of the walls and loaded level straight across, that will be holding 10 tons of material.
     Here is the important part.  It CAN NOT have any other materials inside.  If there is any grass, roots, or other debris mixed inside, there is an extra charge coming.  All our rolloff rental prices include the trash weighing up to 6 tons, which is a lot more than other companies.  But when someone rents a Lowboy and fills it up with dirt, that has other material mixed inside, we can't take it to our facility that charges us by the load.  It needs to be dumped as trash and that's where the 6 tons comes in.  If the Lowboy is filled with clean dirt, concrete, rocks or asphault, that load limit is 10 tons and there isn't any extra charge.  If there is trash, there will be an extra charge of any wieght over 6 tons.  That means you could be paying for up to 4 tons of extra weight.  We always explain and stress this point over the phone, but sometimes it still happens.  Sometimes the customer knows and they are ok paying the extra.  But sometimes it's a suprise they didn't expect and we never like delivering that news.   The driver will take a picture of the load before taking it away, if there is other junk or grass or roots inside and his paperwork didn't say they were planning to put other materials inside.
     We just started a new program where if you only have 1 yard of dirt, bricks, rocks, or concrete.  We can rent you out a smaller dumpster.  It will be with a special small dumpster that will be brought out with a specific truck that can handle picking up a small bin that heavy and it will cost more than our regular bin service, but it's much cheaper than renting a whole lowboy.
     Call us if you have any more questions about this kind of thing.  We love to talk trash.

     When a customer calls, the first thing we do is ask what city the dumpster is being requested to be delivered to.  We ask this first because over half the cities in Los Angeles county have been set up where one trash company has a monopoly.  In those cities, we cannot do business, otherwise our dumpster would be impounded and we would lose out on lots of fees and you wouldn't be able to use your dumpster.  I can do a whole blog post on why cities make these deals with a trash company, but I think for legal reasons, I'm going to have to "Let it go".  If you are interested to find out if we can work with you, before calling us, I did create a "Service Area" map using a tool google made to make shaded areas.  If you click on the top right box, it will open up a new window and just enter your address on the top left, click the search icon(maginfying glass) right next to it, and your address should pop up on the map.  If it's shaded with brown, you are in an area where you can temporarily use our dumpster service.  If it's blue and you own or manage a business in that area, we can also provide weekly trash service to your business.

     Next question is what dumpster size you would like.  We have the 3 cubic yard brown dumpsters that most people rent, but we do have large rolloffs for different types of projects as well. 
       The 10yd rolloff is for dirt, brick, rock, concrete, or asphalt. It's made smaller and stronger for those types of materials and if you fill those up to the sides, they should be just about 10 tons which is the very limit are trucks can haul.  We ask you please do not mound over the top or we won't be able to take the container to the dump until it's unloaded.  No one like to handle materials twice.  There are 20 cubic yard roll offs for heavier construction jobs.  If you have a job that will have a good amount of plaster, drywall, or roofing materials, this is the one for you. 
      Now our most popular roll-off to rent out is a 40 cubic yard.  It's the biggest and is the same price as the 20.  It's made for general cleanups like, cleaning out a house or backyard, maybe for tree trimming or big yard waste cleanups, or even construction jobs where it's gonna be mostly wood and not too much of the heavy materials.
     If you are not sure what size you need we are more than happy to talk you through the prices and what would be best fit for you.

      Question #3 what types of material are you throwing away.  The two reasons we ask this is because we want to be able to recommend the right size dumpster for you if the materials are going to be heavy.  The second reason is because if you say construction, we need to know if it needs to be recycled for a permitted construction or demolition project.  If you are not sure if you need this, please look closely over your building permit or talk to your contractor.  They should, SHOULD, know what we are talking about.  Nowadays, cities want most construction jobs to recycle anywhere between 50% to 75% of the materials coming out of that project and if it's not taken to the right place before your job is done,  there may be a huge price to pay.  If you need to have the materials recycled, there will usually be a bond put up, basically promising that you will have the materials recycled, and if you don't, you won't be getting that money back.  It could be in the 10s of thousands.  So please be sure to check on that because it doesn't happen often, but when a customer calls and asks where we took their C&D materials, and they didn't tell us it needed to be recycled, we are giving them some pretty bad news. 
 
      Once all those questions are handled, we let you know all the things that are illegal to be dumped into our bins like hazardous waste, tire, electronics.  All the stuff that California over the years has deemed irresponsible to put into a landfill.  Then we take the rest of your information to schedule the job and hope things go well and you work safe during the cleanup.

      I guess we can just go over the pickup part right now too.  So our brown 3yd dumpster is rented for 7 days.  If you don't call us, we will come out after that 7th day and pick it up when it is more convenient or close to a new job for us.  The other option is you may call us as soon as you have filled the dumpster up and we will come out to you ASAP to pick it up.  We are usually able to get you the next day, but we have had circumstances where we were just too busy for next day pickup.
     The major thing we also go over before the order is placed/scheduled, is that the dumpster can not be filled over the top.  That means it needs to be filled up to the sides of the walls and be filled level straight across to the other side.  And on our 3yd brown bins, the lids need to be closed completely.  A major concern for us is something falling off or out of the dumpster when we are transporting it.  We would all hate to be the person driving down the freeway, then all the sudden 

     Carpet of America Recovery Effort reached out to us a couple of months ago and we are now a proud member.
     We have been recycling carpet for about a decade now.  We used to haul for Empire flooring and when we had a job that big, we had to find out how to recycle it.  Luckily we found our large recycle facility, we use to this day, and was able to save them a ton of money and help in the reuse effort.  Today we have even more flooring businesses that recycle carpet though our roll-off program and now that we are a member of CARE, we are now registered for anyone to be able to find us through the map on their website. https://carpetrecovery.org/california/ca/
     Any business in California that creates more than 4 cubic yards, of any type of waste, per week, needs to have a recycling program, according to Assembly Bill 341.  Carpet recycling would be an easy decision for a flooring business, to show California you are doing your best to recycle all the waste you can.  Serv-Wel Disposal can definitely help a business start that up.  Just give us a call if you would like more info.
     If you are re-carpeting your house and want to recycle your old carpet, or you want your installer to recycle the carpet they're ripping up,  come drop it off here at our yard (901 South Maple Avenue, Montebello CA 90640).  It costs $45 to drop off a pickup bed full of carpet. When I say a pickup bed full of carpet, I mean level full to the sides.  Not this