In the News

Junk South Establishes Community Outreach Program

By Wayne Ford

https://www.onlineathens.com/news/20200219/junk-south-offering-charity-of-month-program

Posted Feb 19, 2020 at 1:37 PM

Junk South, a business that opened in the Athens and Oconee area in 2011, has a community service program where it will help a family or person through a special charity program.

The program seeks to “create a healthy living environment that fosters growth and happiness within the household,” according to Junk South owner Chris Caswall.

“Too often, we find customers that are consumed by junk or find themselves in unhealthy and even hazardous situations with no recourse,” Caswall said.

Junk South, which moves junk for businesses and residents, has helped dozens of nonprofit organizations through the Charity of the Month program.

For this year, Caswall said the company is trying to spread the word about its outreach program.

Among the charity organizations the company has worked with include Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, Salvation Army and Keep Athens Clarke County Beautiful.

Junk South has said on its website that it wants to provide complimentary junk removal services to a community member or family in need.

To determine eligibility for the program, the company relies on community nonprofits to identify a household in need. Once referrals from local nonprofits are received by Junk South, a thorough vetting process — including a site visit and in-person meeting — will be arranged, according to the company.

Junk South is currently accepting referrals from local nonprofits. Submissions can be emailed to info@junksouth.com and should include the referral agency, name of applicant, address and photos of the items needing removal.

Junk South makes donation to Athens-area homeless shelter

https://www.onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-12-16/junk-south-makes-donation-athens-area-homeless-shelter

Chris Caswall, founder of Junk South, gives Greg Purser of the Athens Area Homeless Shelter a check for $353.25 on Dec. 3.

The funds were raised through Junk South’s new donation matching program where the company partners with a different nonprofit each month and raises funds by offering clients a chance to make a donation to the charity when Junk South picks up items for removal.

The public also can make donations to the program. The charity of the month for December is Keep Athens Clarke County Beautiful.

For more information about Junk South and the program, visit www.junksouth.com.

Junk South will take a formalized approach to supporting area nonprofits

Junk South will take a formalized approach to supporting area nonprofits over the next year when it kicks off a new donation matching program next month.

The full-service junk removal company headquartered in Athens will partner with a different nonprofit each month through November 2014 and offer clients a chance to make a donation to that charity. Junk South will match each donation that is made up to $20 in addition to a $100 donation from the company.

“In the past we have done seasonal drives if we noticed an agency was having an event or holding a drive and we would try to build awareness for the agency while we were out gathering items from our clients, but it was sporadic,” said Chris Caswall, founder of Junk South. “This year, we thought it would make more of an impact on the organizations we are trying to help and make more sense to our clients if we could tell them the name of a nonprofit we are partnering with for the month, give them some information about it and offer them an opportunity to contribute to that cause.”

The donation-matching program will join Junk South’s other fundraisers Trash to Treasure, 5 Days of Bell Ringing and its Complimentary Christmas Tree Removal for elderly and disabled residents and veterans in Athens.

Junk South also currently partners with 13 local agencies such as Goodwill, ReStore, Keep Athens-Clarke County Beautiful and Project Safe’s thrift store by donating items collected from clients that can be recycled or refurbished. The agencies then repair the items and sells them to generate funds to support their programs or use the items to help the agency provide services to the community.

“The whole purpose of the program is to build awareness for area nonprofits through Junk South’s day-to-day operations and hopefully generate some funds for them,” Caswall said. “Junk South is not here to make money. The parent company, Athena Enterprises and Classic City Installation & Extraction, does that. Junk South just has a goal is to give back as much as we bring in.”

The Athens Area Homeless Shelter will be the nonprofit of the month for November.

Any local charity or nonprofit interested in being selected as the nonprofit of the month over the next year can send a letter of interest to Junk South by emailing it to info@junksouth.com or mail it to P.O. Box 964, Athens, GA 30603.

Follow faith, health and Blueprint reporter April Burkhart at www.facebook.com/AprilBurkhartABH.

Junk South to collect household items for Athens homeless shelter

https://www.onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-02-07/junk-south-collect-household-items-athens-homeless-shelter

Junk South will collect donations for the Athens Area Homeless Shelter’s “Going Home” program from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Saturday during the upcoming Green Life Expo at the Classic Center.

Junk South will set up trailers in front of The Classic Center. A lane will be available for people to pull up vehicles and drop off donations.

Gently-used mattresses, box springs, bed frames, tables, chairs, couches, lamps, dressers, desks, kitchen equipment, washers and dryers and more will be collected.

For more information on items Junk South will collect and the Green Life expo, visit helpathenshomeless.blogspot.com/2013/01/household-donation-drive-by-junk-south.htmlor www.greenlifeathens.com.

New business Junk South Offers Junk Removal in Athens Area

By Don Nelson

https://www.onlineathens.com/article/20111030/NEWS/310309984

Posted Oct 30, 2011 at 12:07 AM

Junk South has been in business as a junk removal service for a little more than three weeks in Athens and already has diverted 31⁄2 tons of refuse from the landfill through recycling and diverting the material to other places, owner Chris Caswall claims. Caswall expects to see that number rise.

“We anticipate growing to a level of keeping 5 tons to 10 tons a month out of the landfill,” Caswall said.

Junk South, a division of Athens-based Athena Enterprises, offers residential and commercial junk removal in a 30-mile radius around Athens. The company started earlier this month, employing four people and operating two trucks trailers. Caswall uses custom-built trailers that are 16-feet long and have 4-foot walls, he said. For commercial jobs they bring in 53-foot trailers.

Clients range from people who are looking to recapture their cluttered garages or tool sheds, to individuals settling up an estate or cleaning up after a big party, to businesses that need to clear out a warehouse. The junk removal company will pick up furniture, case goods, appliances, electronics, construction debris, yard debris and other nonhazardous material.

Junk South will take care of some light demolition and renovation if necessary. The company also should have a certificate to pick up hazardous waste in the next month or so, Caswall said.

Rates for single, residential jobs offer four pricing tiers. The minimum charge is $79, a quarter-trailer load is priced at $140, a half-trailer load is $235, a 3⁄4-load is $345 and full load is $395. Rates are lower for commercial accounts.

Clients can arrange a convenient time for a fully-insured Junk South team to come pick the items up from wherever they are.

The company takes paper, plastic and metal to the local recycling stream and donates usable items to places like Habitat for Humanity. In some cases, Junk South may sell office goods or apartment furniture through another Athena Enterprises division, Classic City Liquidators.

Besides individual jobs, Junk South offers a series of subscription services that include the Valet Trash program for apartment properties. Junk South’s uniformed trash valets pick up bagged garbage at residents’ doors and take it to the on-site Dumpsters or compactors as many as five times a week. The Junk South employees also collect any trash found on the property and dispose of it.

Junk South also offers a program called Game Day Trash, in which workers go to a client’s property and collect trash left behind from University of Georgia home football game parties or other special occasions within 12 hours of the event.

Through its property preservation service, Junk South secures, protects and prepares properties for sale that have undergone foreclosure, default or are in bank-owned status. Within two business days, Junk South will re-key all doors and secure garage doors on an abandoned, vacant or foreclosed property. The program includes boarding up openings when vandalism is a risk, removing all interior and exterior debris and providing all janitorial and landscape services as part of the initial service.

Other speciality services include spearheading a neighborhood cleanup; offering a spring cleaning service at discounted rates during April; and helping organize a community yard sale.

“We do the advertising and marketing,” Caswall said. “And whatever doesn’t sell, we’ll clean up.”

Caswall moved to Athens in 2000 to attend the University of Georgia and completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees in English. Between the undergraduate and graduate studies he worked with a company that each August would salvage the furniture turned over by apartments that were upgrading or replacing older merchandise. The salvage company would sell or donate the furniture to someone else.

In 2006, Caswall went out on his own and set up Classic City Liquidators, which has since become a national company. He decided to set up Junk South to serve as a more localized and specialized venture.

“What we wanted to do with Junk South was use the manpower and strength transporting to do what we were doing on a more local level,” he said. “I saw a chance to service Athens and an area in a 30-mile radius to do junk removal.”

Junk South helps Athens cut down on trash

By April Burkhart

https://www.onlineathens.com/article/20121222/LIFESTYLE/312229998

Posted Dec 22, 2012 at 3:58 PM

Once the revelry of the Christmas holiday is over and the new year begins, many people are left with Christmas trees they no longer want.

Chris Caswall, owner of Athens-based junk removal company Junk South said many people will dump used Christmas trees in their yard, at the curb for trash pick up or toss them into ponds or streams.

In an effort to make sure area Christmas trees are recycled and reused instead of tossed aside, Junk South offers a Christmas tree removal service after the holidays. The removal service was created to help older residents, the disabled and veterans with physical limitations remove the trees from their homes.

“When Junk South was becoming an entity last year, we were looking at different services to offer and this is one I felt the community can benefit from, but it wasn’t one we wanted to charge people for,” Caswall said.

All of the trees collected will be brought to the “Bring One for the Chipper” event to be held Jan. 5 by Keep Athens-Clarke County Beautiful.

Others interested in recycling Christmas trees can drop them off at one of four locations, including Clarke Middle School, Chase Street Elementary, Sandy Creek Nature Center and Cofer’s Home and Garden Showplace.

Trees also can be brought to recycling centers at the Lexington Tag Office, Winterville Public Works and the Georgia Square Mall.

The Christmas tree removal service is one of many services Junk South offers to help the community and provide an environmentally-sound approach to treating refuse.

Since the company’s start October 2011, it has donated more than $30,000 worth of items on behalf of its clients to 13 local charities, diverted more than 110 tons of trash from Clarke County landfills and recycled about 5,000 pounds of materials.

“We’re really happy and we’re proud of the efforts the company has made to reach out to the community (in the last year),” Caswall said. “In our business, a lot of junk removal companies are going to keep the items to profit for themselves. They’re not going to donate the items of behalf of their clients or spend hours sorting through loads for plastic and glass and metal and recyclables like cardboard and paper.

“What’s unique about Athens is all of the different resources we have. It makes our job a no-brainer. Why would you not recycle? Why would you not donate when there are so many places out there that could benefit from it?”

Residents ages 65 and older, veterans and the disabled interested in complimentary Christmas tree removal can call Keep Athens-Clarke County Beautiful at (706) 613-3501, ext. 312.

For more information about Junk South, visit www.junksouth.com or www.facebook.com/JunkSouth.

‒ Follow faith, health and Blueprint reporter April Burkhart at www.facebook.com/AprilBurkhartABH.