Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

May 13, 2020 VIRAL BUSINESS 

Seymour companies use pandemic lull to clean up

PHOTOS | Contributed The pandemic caused a drop in business, but a group of workers in Seymour have focused on cleaning up garbage to stay busy.
By Michelle Tuccitto Sullo

Illegal dumping and littering have left streets and woods around the region cluttered with garbage. 

When work started to drop off this spring due to the coronavirus pandemic, inspiration struck for serial entrepreneur Larry Janesky — why not use this opportunity to help address the garbage problem?

Janesky is founder and CEO of Contractor Nation of Seymour, which has several businesses under its umbrella, including Janesky’s Connecticut Basement Systems, which does basement waterproofing, crawl space and foundation repair, and basement finishing work. The Junkluggers, a junk-removal business, joined the Contractor Nation fold last fall.

Last month, the companies started a Community Cleanup Project, with workers going to neighborhoods throughout the region to pick up garbage and debris.

Gustavo Mesa, operations manager with Junkluggers of New Haven County, said Janesky has habitually picked up trash during his personal time, and he pitched the idea to everyone.

“We said, ‘Let’s do it,’” Mesa said. “During these unforeseen times we want to keep our five-star crews working and able to keep food on the table for their families.”

It’s a chance to not only keep employees busy, but also a way to help local communities, he noted.

According to Mesa, employees from Connecticut Basement Systems and Junkluggers have been going to neighborhoods to remove trash. They have gone to areas where they have done work previously, and have also gotten suggestions from municipal leaders and tips from the community on what locations could use their help. 

“We have filled our Junkluggers trucks with cans, bottles, fast-food trash and all kinds of things from the side of the road,” Mesa said.

Workers have done free cleanups in Waterbury, Naugatuck, New Haven, Seymour, Cheshire, East Haven, Branford, Guilford, Madison and Milford, for example. Mesa estimates crews have removed some 12 to 20 truckloads of garbage that had been littering the landscape.

A truckload of garbage collected from area roadways.

After the virus started impacting the region in March, business slowed considerably, according to Mesa.

“We definitely saw a drop in bookings and pickups in the month of April,” Mesa said. “We took a big hit, but we have been rebounding in May, and things are looking up.”

The cleanup effort has been so successful and well-received that Mesa anticipates they will continue it even when business is completely back to normal. 

“We were worried people might be upset with us out there, because of social distancing, but we have been getting a thumbs up from residents and homeowners,” Mesa said.

Junkluggers of New Haven County is a sustainable junk and furniture removal company, which aims to keep reusable goods and materials out of landfills. 

Contact Michelle Tuccitto Sullo at msullo@newhavenbiz.com.

Sign up for Enews

Most Recent

Most Recent

0 Comments

Order a PDF