Moving the Eco-conscious Way

by Eileen Weber

Whether you’re shuffling the kids to college or you’re moving into your first apartment, you’re still moving all your stuff. If you are like everyone else, you’ll grab a fistful of cardboard boxes and call it a day.

But cardboard isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. For one thing, they aren’t sanitary—particularly if you reuse boxes. All sorts of vermin and insects can leave their germy remnants. And unfortunately, most people end up throwing them out which simply adds to our growing landfill piles. According to Earth911, recycling one ton of cardboard saves nine cubic yards of space in a landfill and 46 gallons of oil. And even if you do recycle, cardboard is susceptible to oil and water which contaminates the material making it unusable or recyclable anyway. While some people actually do recycle their boxes because almost every town has a recycling program, about ten percent of them still end up in landfills.

Is there a better option? Fortunately for residents in the tri-state area, there’s a new company in that just opened its doors in Connecticut this month that can help you move your stuff from here to there and doesn’t hurt the environment in the process: Jugglebox.

Based in Berlin, they deliver sturdy, reusable, recycled plastic boxes to your doorstep and pick them up when you’re done. Quick and easy! The boxes come in different sizes: standard is 27 x 17 x 12 with extra large ones for comforters, 16 x 16 ones for books and other heavy items, and fiberboard wardrobe boxes. You can even rent a furniture dolly to tote your boxes because they’re all stackable. Makes getting to and from the car a cinch!

Even better, they come to your door disinfected. Can’t do that with cardboard.

“We’re essentially a middleman as a recycler shuffling boxes from customer to customer,” said Dan Dachelet, owner of Jugglebox’s Connecticut’s branch. “And the price of cardboard is going up, so from a financial perspective we cost less.”

From an environmental perspective, they’re priceless. “Most people do the same old, same old,” he said, “and get boxes from U-Haul.”

But in a comparative cost breakdown, their prices are competitive. You can rent their standard number of 50 boxes for $99 for a studio apartment, $129 for a 1-bedroom, $169 for a 2-bedroom, and $239 for a 3-bedroom space.  At U-Haul, you can get 50 extra large cardboard boxes for $3.25 each for a grand total of $162.50. But those boxes are slightly smaller than the standard Jugglebox size.  And for Connecticut residents, there is a 20% discount so your total cost is even cheaper!

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) has used them twice for office moves. The boxes were delivered and unloaded right to their door. Accoding to Meredith McCaslin, JDRF Associate Executive Director, it made things more efficient.

“The plastic containers are great! They’re durable, stackable, and don’t take up much space,” she said. “It takes the stress out of using cardboard boxes because you never know if they’re going to hold what you’re putting into them.”

Jugglebox, which launched in New York City in January 2011 and took the metropolitan area by storm, certainly isn’t the first of its kind to come up with this concept. In a previous article on this site, we discussed green ways to move and the companies that can help.

Jugglebox’s Dachelet was looking for a small business opportunity and approached the company about franchising. They loved the idea and a new branch was born. Bringing it to Berlin meant the majority of the state could be reached easily. Box delivery can go about 25 miles outside the Connecticut area for an extra charge. When it comes to moving however, what happens in Connecticut, stays in Connecticut.

Now Dachelet says his biggest challenge is getting the word out. He’s reaching out to movers, builders, real estate agents, and mortgage brokers for people who just need to move their stuff temporarily. He’s even got a booth at the CT Green Expo to promote his new business.

For more information, check out their web site at JuggleboxMoving.com.

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