Saving the Planet One Lug at a Time

In the seventh episode of Waste360’s NothingWasted! Podcast, we chat with Josh Cohen, founder and CEO of The Junkluggers and Remix Market, which focus on eco-friendly junk removal. We got to speak with him about growing a green business, the importance of integrated marketing and more.

Here’s a sneak peek into the discussion:

Waste360:You have a big, hairy, audacious goal of keeping 100 percent of items hauled away out of landfills by 2025. Do you think that’s still doable?

Josh Cohen: I do think that’s doable. It’s definitely big, hairy and audacious—and we’re looking for all the help that we can get. We’re not getting one or two consistent type of materials—we get all kinds of stuff, and a lot of it is bulky. We’re just looking for more and more ways to divert things from being thrown away. We have a number of initiatives that are moving the needle—like a sorting center at our facility to recycle items properly … and, of course, we track our progress.

Waste360: What other innovative initiatives are you working on?

Josh Cohen: We started something called Remix Market. One of our big missions since we started is donating as much as we can. And what we’ve been finding is that more and more donation centers are full; they’re picky, and they don’t want something that has a scratch on it. So, we’ve taken matters into our own hands and have been franchising across the country now—we’re repurposing and restoring items, and then we sell them back to the community. A portion of all proceeds goes back to local charities.

Waste360: We have to ask, have you benefited from the Marie Kondo tidying-up craze?

Josh Cohen: We did get a great article in The New York Times about Junkluggers and Marie Kondo. And I’m hearing about it more and more and more. We’ve definitely been using the Marie Kondo philosophy in some of our PR [public relations], social media posts and educational materials. So, yes, without being able to quantify it, I think the answer is yes!

Listen to the full episode with Cohen. Read transcipt here. Don’t miss his keen insights on industry challenges, the passive role of recycling in many of our lives, franchising best practices, company culture and more!