An object’s name often evokes strong feelings. The name of a business does likewise

Sometimes when it comes to naming something—a rose, person or business—the name carries significant weight. That was the case with Load of Rubbish. When Kelvin Rouse was in the process of setting up the company, the name came to him in a sour moment. As he drove down the street upset and muttering to himself, one of the lines that slipped from his lips were “…that’s such a load of rubbish… “. It was a lightbulb moment and the name of the company was born.

Batteries bound for recycling; just one of the items Load of Rubbish prevents from ending up in landfills

But while “Load of Rubbish” does fit perfectly with the junk removal end of the business, there is a piece of the name that is misleading. More often than not, the items which are collected over the course of a day are in fact NOT junk or rubbish. Much of what is collected is perfectly reusable and gets donated back into the community. There are plenty of other items which get recycled, like tires, fridges, and electronics. Those items are far from rubbish as well, and represent new products in the making via recycling programs. Just because they have come to the end of their original life or owner, doesn’t mean there isn’t still life in the many objects we collect. And at Load of Rubbish, we do our best to make sure anything that can be reused or recycled is.

Much of what gets collected from estate cleanups ends up getting donated

There is a whole other side to Load of Rubbish as well—estate cleanups. When people contact us for help with estate cleanups, one of the issues that arises again and again is that people don’t want to just toss out all of a loved one’s possessions. While they may not have room to keep all of the memorabilia and keepsakes, there is still a certain amount of value attached to the items. Calling those precious memories ‘junk’ takes away from the feelings behind them. Which makes it harder to swallow when you have to contact a ‘junk removal’ company to cleanup an estate.

So while Load of Rubbish does our utmost to present a professional, approachable, and caring business, we realize that our tongue-in-cheek name doesn’t always fit with the image we strive to put forth. Should we reconsider our name? Is there something more appropriate we could call ourselves to better reflect the recycling and estate cleanup side of the business?

Ah, naming things. It’s all a load of rubbish!