This article is sponsored by Student Union Junk Removal of Chevy Chase.
by Collin Harris
Somewhere in your home, there’s probably a bag. Maybe it’s in the kitchen junk drawer, or on a shelf in the utility closet.
Inside: a tangle of old phone chargers, a laptop that gave up the ghost in 2021, some AA batteries that you’re pretty sure still have some life in them, and a phone you replaced two years ago but can’t quite bring yourself to throw away.
You’re not disorganized. You’re conscientious. You know these things don’t belong in the trash, and you’re waiting for a better answer.
In Forest Hills, Van Ness and much of Ward 3, that bag is practically a neighborhood institution. The area’s residents — educated, environmentally aware, and increasingly car-free — have spent years accumulating electronics they refuse to dispose of irresponsibly.
DC does offer a solution: Special waste collection events run by the Department of Public Works, where residents can drop off e-waste for proper recycling. The catch is that you need to reserve a 15-minute drop window, drive yourself out to RFK Stadium, and navigate a process designed for someone with a car, a free Saturday morning, and a working knowledge of the city’s online booking system.
For many households, that presents two or three obstacles too many.
The result is a quiet environmental paradox: one of the most conscientious communities in the city is also sitting on a warehouse’s worth of batteries, old monitors, dead tablets, and tangled cables — not because residents don’t care, but precisely because they do.
The e-waste isn’t in the landfill. It’s in the closet, waiting.
That’s the gap that my small family-owned company, Student Union Junk Removal, set out to fill.
Clockwise from the upper left: Collin Harris, Betiko Harris, Yonas Harris and part of an e-waste haul.
Student Union is me and my two children, Yonas and Betiko, both Class of 2026 graduates from Jackson-Reed High School. We’ll come to your porch, pick up a grocery bag’s worth of electronics, and haul it to the next DPW Special Waste event ourselves.
No reservation is required on your end. No car. No trip to RFK. You leave it out; we handle it. The items are disposed of through the city’s own official recycling infrastructure. Student Union is essentially the last mile between your junk drawer and the process you always meant to use.
Betiko and Yonas at the Jackson-Reed High School graduation June 13, 2026.
The goal is straightforward: to relieve residents of unwanted electronic waste, ensure its proper disposal, and extend the reach of city-sponsored efforts to protect the environment — one neighborhood, one building, one porch at a time.
The bag in your junk drawer has been waiting long enough.
Collin Harris is the founder of Student Union Junk Removal, a small local business based in Chevy Chase, DC serving residents throughout Ward 3 and Ward 4. Student Union specializes in junk removal, appliance hauling, and e-waste collection, connecting neighborhood residents to the city’s existing recycling infrastructure. Over the past several months, the company has diverted significant volumes of electronic waste from area homes, delivering it to DC DPW Special Waste Collection events and the Fort Totten Transfer Station. Student Union can be reached at 301-536-3554 or junkremovalchevychase.com.
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