1-800-GOT-JUNK couch disposal cost

First published on February 27, 2014

My 3-seat couch recently fell apart and I needed to responsibly dispose of it. In my apartment building, it is frowned upon to leave junk in the garbage room even if you are willing to pay for it.

First, I tried listing the couch on Craigslist for free, but nobody called. Then I looked into 1-800-GOT-JUNK; they don’t advertise their fees, so I had to call in. I was quoted a rate of $182 in Burnaby, which I was told includes labour, gas, disposal fees, and insurance for 2 workers. (Presumably they know their fee is comparatively very high, so they have to explain that you are getting all these things you didn’t think about.) Eventually, I called my favourite handyman and paid about half the amount, although we didn’t fully itemize the cost as he also helped me with something else in my place.

1-800-GOT-JUNK is probably worth it for other types of disposal jobs, but in this case their price was much too high. In the future, for disposing large household items, I would suggest considering some other alternatives that I hadn’t originally explored:

• If you or someone you know has a truck, you can drive your item(s) to the landfill yourself. In Metro Vancouver, the dump fee is only a minimum of $10-$20.
• If your city doesn’t have a spring cleanup program (where everybody can put large items outside their house for disposal once a year), consider calling your city to see if they’ll do a one-time pick-up. This option exists in Burnaby and New Westminster, although there doesn’t appear to be a public price list.

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