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Business & Tech

San Ramon Junk Hauler Goes Green, Thrives

For Julio Vela, owner of San Ramon-based Junk Pros, eco-friendly practices are more than a business strategy, they're a social responsibility.

San Ramon resident Julio Varela didn't always have entrepreneurial ambitions. The 38-year-old father of two earned his degree in microbiology from San Francisco State University, worked for Bayer and then went on to Genentech.

He was pretty happy with the way his career was going, when his friend Jeff approached him about starting a franchise of 1-800-Got-Junk?

At first, Varela was not impressed with the idea. After all, hauling and dumping junk was not exactly one of his life's aspirations. "Are you crazy? I'm not going to do that. I went to college!" he told his friend.

But as he learned more, he recognized the demand for the service and the opportunity to make plenty of money. They opted to ditch the franchise plan and create their own business, opening Junk Pros in Albuquerque, N.M., in 2005 and then expanding to the Bay Area in 2007.

Soon after, Varela purchased his partner's share in the business and took over all aspects, down to the color and font of every advertisement. But his decision to "go green" with the business was perhaps the most important one. It was motivated not by a desire to improve his bottom line, he said, but by his daughter's future.

When Tatiana was born in July 2006, "I just started looking at the world differently," he said. "I started thinking about her future and the environment she'd have to live in."

In his daily life, he started recycling more diligently and using chemical-free and organic products. He realized he needed to start incorporating the same practices into his business.

He ran Junk Pros from his home, and the process of transitioning it into an environmentally friendly business included everything from replacing all the toilets in his house with low-flow models to using compact fluorescent light bulbs to changing the length of time he watered his lawn. 

Varela also started fueling all of the Junk Pros trucks with bio diesel. As in all other aspects of running his business, he spent time researching, and carefully considered all the options, before deciding on the best source of fuel: sushi restaurants. Of all restaurant oil, theirs was the cleanest, he said. Never any "fries or meat chunks" that you might find in the oil from burger restaurants.

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Those trucks are driven by people like Vince Rodriguez. You wouldn't blame him for being a bit grumpy for having to work early on a Saturday morning, but he is nothing but smiles as he drives a Junk Pros truck to his first job of the day, with his coworker, Jerry. 

Rodriguez, who has been working as a driver and hauler for Junk Pros for about a year and a half, said the responsible disposal practices make his job rewarding.  He likes knowing that he's helping people by providing a needed service, and by donating so many useful items to charity on a regular basis.

Jerry agrees. "It's like good karma every day."

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The entire process of going green took Varela about six months and a $2,500 investment. In September 2008 the Bay Area Business Program officially certified Junk Pros as a green business.

The investment quickly paid off. Even though the recession hit with full force in the following months, Varela said, Junk Pros has seen at least a 50 percent increase in business since becoming certified green.

Varela conceded that at first it may seem unlikely for a junk business to also be a green business. 

"But when you think about it, we're really a major part of the process," he said. How people dispose of waste and unwanted items on a daily basis impacts the environment in a big way. So a business that specializes in disposing of junk has a responsibility to do so in the most eco-friendly ways possible.

Varela said he takes that responsibility seriously. Anything Junk Pros picks up that can be donated is given to one of several local charities. After that, all recyclables are recycled. The dump is always a last resort for items that can't be salvaged.

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