Many people view the dump as a place where useless things find their final resting place. But Kirk McKinney Jr. saw his local dump as a site filled with opportunity, which ultimately ignited his interest in junk removal and recycling.
A few years ago, the Westwood teen was on a weekend bike ride with his friend when he discovered the local dump. McKinney said his natural curiosity led them inside, where they went exploring. He found some speakers, which he took home, and that find led to subsequent trips to the junkyard and a bedroom filled with audio equipment.
“Then my mom basically said I had to throw it all away or get rid of it somehow because it wasn’t allowed to all stay there,” McKinney said.
He ended up selling his finds on Facebook. He found such success that he started reselling other things he found at the dump. Not long after, he quit his job at Roche Brothers.
“I was close with the guys at the dump. They did cleanouts, junk removal. So working with them, I realized it was something I could do on my own,” McKinney said. “And then eventually I transitioned from selling things to only doing junk removal because I saw there’s a bigger opportunity in the junk-removal industry.”
A TikTok following
In 2021, Kirk teamed up with his younger brother Jacob and started Junk Teens, a junk-removal and disposal service, with their first pickup truck. Now the business has two dump trucks, a warehouse in Norwood and nearly 145,000 followers on TikTok.
Right now, social media is playing a role in hiring for Junk Teens. One video shows them using a drill to drain water out of an above-ground pool. The video is set to the song “Teenage Dirtbag” and is captioned “Follow to see what we destroy next.” It has 88,000 views.
“Not everyone is going to understand, like if I go up and offer somebody money for a job, that’s only one part that’s going to motivate them,” Kirk said. “But if someone actually sees how fun our job is, and how fun we make it, then they’ll have a whole nother understanding and another reason to want to work with us.”
The brothers plan to continue working on Junk Teens as they tackle high school and college. Even as the co-founders get older, they plan to keep the Junk Teens branding and employ young people.
“Ultimately, I plan to have other teenagers be able to start their own Junk Teens,” Kirk said.
A warehouse — and hangout
Seventeen-year-old Jacob is in charge of scheduling, phone calls, estimates and organizing the teams that will head out each day for jobs. He’s also a rising senior at Westwood High School. Kirk is 19 years old and a rising sophomore at nearby Babson College. He handles the other parts of the business, like branding and marketing.
They still go out on junk-removal jobs, but Kirk said they have two full-time employees and other people who work on a part-time basis. Business has been busy recently, Kirk said, with about four people out on jobs every day.
At the start of the year, the brothers also got a warehouse in Norwood, where they bring items that can be donated, repurposed, recycled or sold. It’s also an office space and a spot to hangout for the young coworkers.
Kirk said he foresees social media playing a greater role in their future business growth.
“I’ve just witnessed so much of my life and everyone else’s lives around me become more and more digital,” Kirk said. “And I think having a presence on social media is going to be a huge, important part of scaling and growing our business.”
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