Special Feature
Any old junk! Sarah Allen met a man who took one man’s trash and made it his treasure “Waste is a great place to innovate because there’s not much innovation there,” says AnyJunk creator Jason Mohr of his six-year-old business. Previously a corporate financier for a private investment banking company, he decided he’d had enough of the big city and set up the company. “One of the reasons why I left was because I didn’t like having someone else as my boss. I hated other people making decisions about me, for me.” Which is why Mohr decided to launch AnyJunk, and is working towards making it a national brand “rather than a two-truck business”. AnyJunk was launched to provide a service to dispose of items considered “too big for the bin”. One of the company’s most unusual acquisitions was the Skoda cake, used in an advertisement for the car manufacturer a few years ago. I wasn’t expecting to have the pleasure of ogling a car-sized cake during my visit – although, I had my fingers crossed behind my back. In fact, Rich Carty and Tommy Passade led me to a whole load of junk. From un-opened bags of cement to an old boiler, Tommy and Rich had it covered
“We never know what we’re going to pick up until we actually get there,” Rich told me from the front seat of our elephant truck, Rosie – (Yes! The trucks have names!). “The only issue we could have is access and we might have to walk.” I didn’t like the sound of that. I rather enjoy sitting. “We like to be able to just pull up as close as possible.” Yep; sounds great to me! “But it said on the PDA ‘Park on the pavement’, because it’s round the back, and that doesn’t sound good!” The team is equipped with a palmtop computer giving them basic information about a job. I was apprehensive about the job, mostly because I didn’t want to make an idiot of myself trying to lift something ridiculously heavy. I was relieved when Rich said that I wasn’t going to be lifting anything because I didn’t have the right gear on, nor did I have boots. Who am I to defy health and safety regulations? Tommy pulled up to an old pub in Lambeth. Cheerful owners came out to greet us, eager to help shift bits and pieces. We’d barely pulled up when a neighbour came outside asking for rates and dates. Rosie is anything but inconspicuous. The lads – AnyJunk’s and the clients – seemed to be having fun; causing absolute destruction within the controlled confines of the truck. From plants to un-opened bags of cement. We even found an old boiler! Plumbing is the core part of the business, with clients including B&Q, Möben and Magnet. “For example,” said Rich, “if you were to buy a kitchen from B&Q, they’ll come and rip out your old kitchen, put it outside, and then we would come and
Team effort: Rich Carty, Sarah Allen and Tommy Passade
collect it.” Mohr added: “We also work for a lot of independents because they outsource it.” Other clients include housing associations and councils, “which is quite often a combination of kitchen, boiler, bathroom – upgrading housing stock”. Mohr offers several reasons for installers to take advantage of AnyJunk’s services. “First and foremost is efficiency, then compliance. If a plumber is doing an installation and they’re taking waste away, then they need to be a licensed waste carrier to do that, and a lot of them aren’t. If you’re caught moving waste like that – even if it’s waste you’ve created – you can be fined and also have your vehicle seized. “Hazardous waste needs additional paperwork,” Mohr noted. “Most of that is ignored, [creating] a problem about [the] potential risk of being caught and having a criminal offence against you. Also, you’ll be in breach of all your contracts with your big contractors. It’s an easy reason for the contractor to get rid of you.” Time wasting is also a factor for the installer. “If you’re a
fitter, then you’re probably worth quite a few pounds per hour. What you do is fit stuff, install stuff, and you’re skilled to do that. It’s actually not very skillful lifting up junk and driving it down to a tip and taking it back again. That is wasting labour hours where you could be making way more money.” AnyJunk provides the documentation of disposal required to meet legislation. “Increasingly on the big contracts and public sector contracts, the clients are interested in the landfill diversion. Our reports – which tell you about every postcode we’ve collected from, what weight, where it got disposed of and how much got recycled – [are] really important for those organisations for their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). We make that very easy, because we do it; we provide it for them.” On the road, a minivan driver drove by. “Any ol’ rubbish!” he shouted with a cheeky grin as he whizzed by. Tommy laughed; clearly, he’d heard this before. “Exactly,” he agreed. “That’s what we do!” HVP 284 www.hvpmag.co.uk • 69