King of Sharonville Committed to Environment and Community

High on a clean wooden shelf just outside the office of Pete McCreary, president and owner of the Cincinnati and Dayton Junk King franchises, sits a stack of worn, neatly folded American flags. Like everything Junk King collects and hauls away, the flags were among items that someone no longer wanted and paid to have removed. 

McCreary motions toward the stack."We fold those, and we take them to the American Legion about once a quarter where they properly dispose of flags." Though it doesn’t offer any benefit to the financials or operations of his franchises, the practice epitomizes his approach to the business of junk removal, recycling, disposal, and more broadly, community and environmental stewardship.

Speaking of what initially led him to partner with Junk King, McCreary says, "Its foundational process is built around reusing, repurposing or recycling all that we can and putting as little as possible into the landfill.

"Our primary business is and always will be professional junk removal," McCreary says, emphasizing that the company does jobs as simple as hauling away couches and as complex as digging out hot tubs and concrete-imbedded fences. 

The Cincinnati franchise is adding more capacity and new capabilities. The company recently moved to a larger facility on 11472 Gondola Street in Sharonville. The 15,000-square-foot space, six times larger than the former location on East Kemper Road, offers two docks and a drive-in door.

"With the bigger space, we can do an even better job of separating and pulling things out, taking less ultimately to the landfill," McCreary says. The larger space accommodates a drop-off and mini-dumpster service. This year McCreary will also add two more Junk King trucks to his fleet for a total of six.

Hauling the junk, however, as McCreary and his team did on an episode of the popular TLC program "Hoarding: Buried Alive," is just the first step. Once the items are collected, whatever can be recycled is separated and whatever can be donated is distributed to organizations like Building Value, New Life Furniture, Matthew 25: Ministries and Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore.

McCreary’s Junk King franchise was honored as the Small Business Champion Award, a distinction for which he has been a finalist for three of the past four years, at January’s Sharonville Champions of Commerce dinner. 

McCreary is a big fan of Sharonville. "It’s a great location to own a business. Geographically it’s a great place for dispatching trucks to the Greater Cincinnati area. There’s a metal recycling place right down the street. From a business standpoint, the chamber is phenomenal here." 

McCreary attributes the franchise’s growth to his commitment to recycling and its people. "Just look at our on-line reviews and see how customers rave about our guys."

Junk King is located at 11472 Gondola Street, Sharonville, OH 45241. For more information, call 513.771.5865 or visit their website at www.junk-king.com/cincinnati.