His highness

After fitting another load of a customers’ unwanted household trash into the back of his recycling truck, Steve Trotter raised his arm to wipe a stream of sweat from his shaved head. Don’t be fooled, though; Butte County’s emperor of trash loves the hard work. When Trotter and his wife, Colleen, bought a franchise recently from the Junk King business, which specializes in junk-hauling services to clear clutter and unwanted items from businesses and homes, he knew that his customers expected him to get down and dirty. The Junk King offers full service for all kinds of trash and junk removal, as Trotter’s franchise spans five counties in Northern California and Nevada. This eco-friendly business recycles about 60 percent of all the trash it picks up from its customers. Log onto www.junk-king.com for more info or to schedule an appointment.

How has Chico responded to Junk King?

Well currently, it’s a little slow with Chico, but we’re starting to pick up and get a little bit of traction. Our advertising has just started to hit Chico. The jobs that we have done in Chico, the people have been very responsive, very excited for what we did for them. And what I’m finding right now in Chico is that the biggest problem is just that we’re a well-kept secret. We just need to get our name out more.

What would you really like Butte County residents to know about Junk King?

What I’d really like for them to know is that we’re a real company, and that we are insured, and that it’s a full-service business, meaning that you call us up to remove the junk, you pour yourself a cold drink and sit back, you don’t do any work. You don’t have to pull anything to the street; we’ll actually go get the material, wherever it is on the property. And of course, we recycle about 60 percent of it.

What do you see in the future of Junk King?

Well, what I foresee is that we’ll have probably two or three trucks dedicated just to Chico. I see Chico as being our largest growth potential in all five counties that we operate in, because I think the people in Chico are very ecology-minded. It’s a population that’s in a central location, and you have a university right there. The student population is key for us, in cleaning up rental properties, cleaning out all the different things that develop from having a student presence in the community. By this time next year, I see us having three trucks already in Chico.