Junk removal company helping Calgary Drop In Centre clients

Calgary company turns junk into treasure A Calgary company turns other people's junk into treasures for the community. Kevin Fleming reports.

CALGARY — What if someone could turn your junk into someone else's treasure, and help the environment a little along the way?

Just Junk Calgary picks up items people are getting rid of. Deb and Mike Darbyshire started the business 12 years ago. They have a goal of diverting as much as they can from landfills and the people who make use of the Calgary Drop In Centre's (DI)  free goods program benefit as a result.

"We have a list of who will take what," said Deb Darbyshire. "So somewhere like the Calgary Drop In Centre, they will take pretty much all very good household items, housewares, cutlery, furniture - as long as it's in gently-used condition, they will take it."

Elise Short, the DI's community engagement manager, said Just Junk is great to work with.

"Anything that they bring from a mattress, a couch, even artificial plants, everything goes such a long way to help somebody set up their home," said Short. "We're talking about people that are either new to Calgary, new to Canada or starting over again."

Short said when clients receive the donation it helps turn their house into a home.

"They're starting with nothing," she said. "So even the littlest thing that somebody might not think would make an impact on somebody really does, it helps to set up their home."

In 2021 the company set a goal to donate 75 truck loads of items for the free goods program. They managed 100 loads and in 2022 hope to get 250 loads to clients.

"The Drop In Centre is one of our biggest (agencies) that take most of our stuff," said Mike Darbyshire. "Its going to get used and that's, that's a good thing about it."

Just Junk is a full service junk removal company. Deb Darbyshire says they make customer's lives easy by removing what they don't want. Mike sorts everything that comes into the warehouse. They get a lot of garbage, but even that's sorted and recycled. They receive old and even new items from clients.

"We actually don't sell anything at all," said Deb Darbyshire. "We make a point of putting it back into the community or going to different recycling centers."

MAKING ART OUT OF JUNK

It's Deb's job to find a new home for all the items that can be reused. She works with a number of local artisans who make art out of junk.

"People that do arts and crafts, they'll take the nuts, the bolts and the little beads and bangles and all these little things that you wouldn't even given a second look to and they'll they'll make these wonderful items out of them," she said.

Mike Darbyshire is passionate about making sure items get sorted so they can be recycled or repurposed. In 2021 he saw 101, 720 kg (224,256) lbs of metal, 26,020 kg (57,366 lbs) electronics, 33,009 kg (72,774 lbs) concrete, 867 car and truck tires and 774 bicycle tires diverted from the landfill. He enjoys finding antiques and hidden treasures the most.

"And the hard thing about this business is you see lots of things and you think it would be great to keep that that's good but you got to say no, you got to be strict and just give it to the people who need it, rather than stick it in my own home," he said.

Find out more about Just Junk here: www.justjunk.com