Former Camosun business student Aaron Lawson takes great pride in reducing the amount of garbage that ends up in the landfill, despite the fact that he co-owns a junk hauling business, Atlas Junk Removal. Lawson—who was at Camosun from 2011 to 2014 but left because business was booming and he was learning so much on the job—says the business tries to divert as much junk as they can instead of going to the landfill and just tipping the truck out.
“We work with quite a few different places—like Salvation Army, Value Village, ReStore—to repurpose as much of the stuff that’s still good as we can,” says Lawson. “And then, from there, if we can’t get rid of it through those means then we look at it for its raw materials, like steel, paper, cardboard—anything that can be recycled. From there, anything that’s left over we dispose of as best we can.”
Lawson and his business partner Wesley Colwell always knew they wanted to do something to help out the community. As the two young entrepreneurs were starting their business, they didn’t have the funds to donate, so they decided to give back in a different way.
“We were struggling with how do we give back as much as we can because we don’t have a big chunk of cash that we can say, ‘Hey, we donated this much to a cause we support,’” says Lawson. “But, we had a ton of time as we were growing.”
In early 2015, the two heard about Vancouver Island Surfrider Foundation, a group focused on cleaning up the beaches of the lower island, while listening to the radio.
“Wes had said, ‘Maybe we should reach out and see if they have anyone who helps them with cleanups already,’” says Lawson. “It was just good timing, because at the time we were really early on in the business and didn’t have a lot of money to get involved in the community at all, but that was something we wanted to do.”
The two began volunteering to sort and haul the materials from the cleanups, using their environmentally savvy skills to dispose of the waste. Three years later, Lawson can appreciate the symbiotic growth between Atlas Junk Removal and Vancouver Island Surfrider Foundation.
“I think when we were first helping them, there were maybe 10 to 12 volunteers out to the cleanups. And now, at the most recent one they just had, [there were] over 200. So it’s been cool because they can get a ton of people out, focus on that side of things, getting people to attend the cleanups and we handle the disposal of everything. So there’s never a time where they’re like, ‘Hey, it’s great that we found that washed-up boat on the beach, but we can’t really get rid of it just due to its size and how much stuff has been accumulated.’ They have no cap on that now, which is really cool that we can help them out.”
Atlas Junk Removal uses scales as opposed to space to determine the cost of their services, so it’s no surprise they have weight on the brain when it comes to helping out.
“I think we’ve done almost 24,000 pounds since 2015,” says Lawson. “And that’s just beaches in Victoria.”