“A lot of junk removal companies will take everything, but it’s all about what we do with it that sets us apart,” says Junk King CEO Jack Brendamour. And what they do with it represents a second life for around 70% of the items their large red trucks collect.
Jack walks into the conference room at Junk King headquarters in Sharonville. Red-and-black theater seats removed from a local cinema line one long wall, matching the red-and-back conference table hauled out of an office building. Nearly every piece of furniture and decor throughout the building came from a job.
If Jack’s last name sounds familiar, it’s because his grandfather (and namesake) owned the Brendamour Sporting Goods stores that were a fixture in the area for decades.
Ask 40-year-old Jack how he got into the junk removal business, and he’s quick to respond. “Divine Intervention. I think I was led here,” he says emphatically. It started with a chance encounter in 2015 with Junk King’s franchise owner Pete McCreary; several conversations later Pete offered Jack the job as general manager. Pete passed away tragically in 2019. Today, Jack is CEO and co-owner with Pete’s wife, Judy, and Steve Jordan.
Jack freely admits that he had reservations about entering the junk removal industry, but now holds immense pride in it.
“The first thing we want to do is repurpose items in their original form or get them fully functional. If we can’t do that, sometimes we can take part of the item to recycle.” For example, pulling electrical components from a hot tub to use in a different capacity.
The goal? Keeping as much out of the landfill as possible. That has always been the mindset of the company. Their motto: America’s Greenest Junk Removal Company. And they come to you, making it easy to arrange a pickup at your home or business, no matter how small or large.
“We’ve taken it to a level far above where it started,” Jack says, walking into the large warehouse where items are sorted and organized. What can’t find a new home will be repurposed if possible, including the number one polluter of landfills, styrofoam. It never breaks down and represents 30% of landfill contents.
Along the back wall, Jack points to a Styrofoam Densifier that shows how Junk King handles the mountains of styrofoam it collects. The machine reduces the material’s volume by almost 98%, turning it into dense logs that can be transformed into other things — park benches, insulation, clothes hangers, more.
When it comes to electronics and paperwork, Junk King can provide certificates of destruction, so customers know their devices and personal information will be properly recycled. Laptops are refurbished and given to local school districts.
Many items, especially in situations where a family member has passed and nearly everything picked up can be recycled in its original form, are passed along to those in need.
“We’ve built relationships with a lot of nonprofits in the area,” Jack explains. “The neat thing about that is we know who needs what and when they need it.”
Being a good community partner also extends to sponsorships and helping with events throughout Greater Cincinnati, like annual Earth Day celebrations in the area. Sometimes, it even means returning valuables.
“Four years ago, we cleared out a house of a gentleman who had passed away. When we got back to the warehouse, we found a coin collection in a drawer that was valued at $80,000. Obviously, the family didn’t mean for us to take that, so we tracked them down and gave it back.” Which also says something important about Junk King’s employees.
“We hire people for their smiles and personalities. Everything else is trainable,” Jack says with a smile of his own. “Our customers have to have a good interaction with our employees.” That respect and empathy for others are especially important to the company culture — downsizing or getting rid of a lifetime of possessions can be very emotional for family or friends tasked with the project.
“We’ve learned a lot over the years and gotten better at what we’re trying to do,” Jack explains. Which ultimately is to benefit our world at large. “I believe we’re setting up future generations for a bad outcome if we don’t take better care of our environment. It takes businesses like ours to take the lead and that first step.”
Junk King’s 19 trucks are on the road every day supporting that mission.
Pass It On
“One person’s trash is another’s treasure” is a reality Junk King lives daily. Donated items include:
- 20,000 children’s books to Bloc Ministries’ Side By Side outreach program.
- Tractor tires to the Loveland Football Programs for workout sessions.
- Pallets of paint and handicapped equipment to Matthew 25 Ministries.
- 1,000 new toys to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati holiday toy drive in 2025.
- Outfitting an apartment with a table, couch, TV, mattresses, pots, pans, and dishes for a woman and her three children who’d been living in their car, in addition to a Christmas tree and decorations, the first they’d ever had.
Junk-King.com/Cincinnati | 513.902.3898