{"id":16240,"date":"2020-09-25T21:58:28","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T21:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uship.com\/blog\/?p=16240"},"modified":"2025-09-03T15:05:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T15:05:22","slug":"uship-wasteplace-tackle-waste-removal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/company-news\/uship-wasteplace-tackle-waste-removal\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Renovations Produce Huge Waste. Here\u2019s How to Handle It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As I lay on my back, contorted under the bathroom vanity, the faded Sharpie-written text under the old sink became clear in my headlamp light.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJim Elmer 4\/7\/80\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Apparently, 40 years earlier, some guy named Jim Elmer proudly installed this then-modern sink and cabinet, and in the process, he made the bottom of the basin his own personal time capsule, his name patiently lying in wait for someone to find it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uship.com\/blog\/company-news\/uship-wasteplace-tackle-waste-removal\/attachment\/screen-shot-2020-09-29-at-3-37-29-pm\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16266 noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-16266\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uship.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2020-09-29-at-3.37.29-PM-1024x766.png\" alt=\"bottom of bathroom sink with writing\" width=\"640\" height=\"479\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2020-09-29-at-3.37.29-PM-1024x766.png 1024w, https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2020-09-29-at-3.37.29-PM-300x224.png 300w, https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2020-09-29-at-3.37.29-PM-768x574.png 768w, https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2020-09-29-at-3.37.29-PM-853x640.png 853w, https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2020-09-29-at-3.37.29-PM-150x112.png 150w, https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2020-09-29-at-3.37.29-PM.png 1244w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now, four decades later, Jim\u2019s style and tile had simply worn out their welcome. Minutes after discovering Jim\u2019s leave-behind, his handy work was ripped from its caulked stronghold (Sorry, Jim) and replaced with a new cabinet top, faucet hardware, and sink, under which I had to write my name and date, of course.<\/p>\n<p>As I carried all the old materials out of the house, a few things occurred to me:<\/p>\n<p>First, there was simply no way I could fit all this in the trash can for our weekly pickup, even bits at a time.<\/p>\n<p>Second, who could I call to affordably and responsibly haul this stuff away? And did I have enough stuff to make it worth someone\u2019s while?<\/p>\n<p>And third, should I track Jim down to say hi and let him know of my treacherous deed?<\/p>\n<p>From what I\u2019ve read, seen and heard, my home renovation story is not a unique one.<\/p>\n<p>Being at home more due to the pandemic has led to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/09\/10\/opinion\/sunday\/coronavirus-home-improvement.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">surge in home DIY projects<\/a> (followed by calls to professionals to fix the DIY mess), higher wood prices, record profits at big box stores, and yes, an inordinate amount of renovation waste by homeowners, landlords and contractors.<\/p>\n<p>That leads me to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wasteplace.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WastePlace<\/a>, an online marketplace that connects those with junk with those who can haul said junk. They also off recycling services, recurring waste removal services, and dumpster rental.<\/p>\n<p>uShip has formed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/austin\/news\/2020\/09\/29\/wasteplace-pandemic-effect.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">partnership with WastePlac<\/a>e whereby uShip customers, or those on uShip looking for waste removal, will be referred to WastePlace to get the job done.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uship.com\/blog\/company-news\/uship-wasteplace-tackle-waste-removal\/attachment\/wasteplace-blog-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16272 noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16272\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uship.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/WastePlace-Blog-2.png\" alt=\"man hauling away junk\" width=\"790\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/WastePlace-Blog-2.png 790w, https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/WastePlace-Blog-2-300x85.png 300w, https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/WastePlace-Blog-2-768x219.png 768w, https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/WastePlace-Blog-2-150x43.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 790px) 100vw, 790px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Pricing is based on bids (similar to uShip\u2019s auction model) so you know you\u2019re getting market rates and not overpaying to get that waste hauled away.<\/p>\n<p>While the Junk Removal category was something we tossed around for years at uShip (shout out to former colleague Austin Pollock), it never quite fit our business model, which today is focused on furniture, motorcycles, vehicles, boats, freight, and heavy equipment \u2013 anything but junk, for sure.<\/p>\n<p>But junk is big business, especially today. And what can be a more cathartic process than getting rid of junk?<\/p>\n<p>Now there\u2019s an easy, affordable, trusted way to do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I lay on my back, contorted under the bathroom vanity, the faded Sharpie-written text under the old sink became clear in my headlamp light. \u201cJim Elmer 4\/7\/80\u201d Apparently, 40 years earlier, some guy named Jim Elmer proudly installed this then-modern sink and cabinet, and in the process, he made the bottom of the basin&#8230;<a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/company-news\/uship-wasteplace-tackle-waste-removal\/\"> Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":16264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-company-news"],"acf":{"blog_post_content":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}