“Why I love this job”, Luke Nabaro, ex-Bristol rugby player, tells me, “is that I love destroying things.” He says this as he breaks up an old wooden bed frame with a hammer. “I’ve learnt a lot about how things are made”, says Nabaro, “because we’ve had to break them apart.”

A burly Fijian, Nabaro used to play rugby professionally until injury cut his career short. His brawny, muscular physique is well suited to the bulky waste profession, as he can lift wardrobes and sofas with ease. “One of the first jobs I was on, we were collecting some sofas, and I just wandered over and picked one up... only later did I realise that’s normally a two-man job”, he laughs.

I’m with Bristol-based bulky waste handlers Junkaway, clearing the furniture and unwanted effects of a homeowner who is moving house, at a block of flats in North Bristol. Three television sets, a bed, sofa, two wardrobes and a lot more (including ‘adult’ movies) later, we’re off to unload the truck and sort through what needs to be reused, scrapped and recycled/composted. “You could furnish a whole apartment with this lot”, says Nabaro. “We once arranged all the furniture in the van to look like a living room, that’s how much good stuff we collect”, he adds.

On days where there are a lot of items labelled for reuse, several trips will be made to the unloading site and back, though on this particular job, much of the furniture is deemed unsuitable for reuse and is broken up to be sent for recycling and to ensure that space in the van is maximised.

“Ikea have a lot to answer for”, Nabaro’s collection partner, Rich Thomas, tells me. “A lot of the time the Ikea furniture we collect looks fine and could be reused, but it’s made of such flimsy material that it doesn’t transport well and ends up going to be recycled.”

Reuse, recycling and sustainability are key concepts for the company, owner Chris Edwards tells me. Originally from a gardening background, Edwards branched out to collecting bulky waste in early 2008, after his clients repeatedly asked him to take items of furniture, as well as their garden waste, away with him.

“I saw a gap in the market”, Edwards says when I catch up with him later on in the day. “There didn’t seem to be anyone in Bristol collecting furniture and general waste, so it made sense.” Once word got round about Junkaway, Edwards needed another pair of hands, so took on Thomas to help with the rounds. When Edwards was incapacitated by an ankle injury in early 2012, Nabaro was hired to fill in, and has been there ever since.

It’s Thomas and Nabaro that are now the day-to-day collectors for Junkaway, and it’s these two that I’m out on rounds with today. We’re driving around Bristol in one of the two vans Junkaway owns – one van for metal, residual waste and items for reuse, and the other one for wood. In the course of the morning we use both vans (as one suffers from some ‘technical difficulties’ – a case of jealousy, Nabaro tells me – “She’s used to being the only female around here”, he jokes), but we are largely collecting furniture and items for reuse today.

The first job we go to is at a house in the affluent suburb of Henleaze to pick up some old glass windows that are being replaced. The homeowner who greets the boys asks them to take special care of them, as they are good condition ‘Flemish’ glass that could be reused by someone else. “Sustainability is a mark of Junkaway’s customers”, says Edwards. “People book us specifically because they know we divert waste from landfill.”

But others aren’t quite so discerning, as Thomas tells me on the way to another job in the nearby leafy suburb of Clifton. “We once had a job up in Clifton at a four-storey house. The owner walked us through his house and said: ‘Everything on this floor has to go’, and then went up to the next level and said the same. Eventually he said: ‘I can’t be bothered to go up any more, but you get the picture, take everything.’” After clearing three wholae floors of the property, most of which was brand new, and worth thousands of pounds, Nabaro asked why he was getting rid of it all. “Because my wife wants new things”, was his answer.

It’s furniture reuse jobs like these that are the hardest, Thomas admits, as they have to take much more care and time to make sure nothing is marked, dirtied or damaged. “It can be pretty hard going keeping everything clean... as we’re driving around in what is essentially a bin”, says Thomas.

And it’s not surprising that the truck is considered thus. Nothing is deemed too broken, too dirty or too small to be collected, and everything goes into the truck. At the end of each job, the boys even sweep up and take all the scraps from the ground (including leaves) with them. “We sweep up after ourselves and make sure the area we’ve been working in is tidy”, Edwards tells me. “We want it to seem that we’ve vanished the junk away, it’s like we’ve never even been there... I like to think of ourselves as junk therapists”, he adds. “We’re helping people let go of their waste.”

Prices for this ‘therapy’ vary – customers are given a quote based on the amount of waste that needs to be collected and the distance they are from Bristol (as the rise in petrol costs becomes an increasing concern), but as landfill prices shoot up, the customer rates are also affected. “As charges for landfill go up, we have to put our prices up – but we try to explain to the customers that we’re trying to do the best we can for them. People just don’t realise how expensive waste is”, says Edwards. At the end of the day, though, it seems people are willing to pay for the convenience of having their stuff removed.

“‘There’s the offending article’ is what we hear a lot”, says Edwards. “But people are really happy when we take something away from them and, usually, are surprised at how quickly the job can be done.” “Everything’s something”, he adds. “Cardboard boxes can be shredded to be made into cardboard, clothes into textiles... we’re not in the end-of-life industry, but the beginning-of-life." Surprisingly, most of the items Junkaway collects for reuse get given away rather than sold off: “When you pick up stuff this quickly, you have to give it away”, Edwards concedes. “There’s just so much.”

As we drive around Bristol, Edwards points out a secondhand furniture shop that they often give collected items to.
“Old wooden furniture that looks a bit ropey just gets a little TLC, a sand-down and a lick of paint and it looks as good as new. It’s good to know that we can help support local businesses as well as the local community.”

It’s clear that Edwards, Nabaro and Thomas genuinely enjoy this profession, and on sunny days like today, it’s not hard to see why. Being outdoors, getting to know their city better and meeting people who are genuinely relieved to get rid of their belongings (and tip handsomely!) are just some of the things the Junkaway men say contribute to their high job satisfaction.

“We’ve learnt a lot in this business”, says Edwards. And it’s this experience and expertise that he now believes stands them in good stead to become the first bulky waste franchise in the UK. Offering “help, training, marketing support and advice” to those looking to set up a bulky waste service, Junkaway may soon be coming to a street near you.