Kirk and Jacob McKinney were bored teenagers during the pandemic when they stumbled onto something big at a local dump. What started as picking up discarded speakers and reselling them on Facebook Marketplace has grown into Junk Teens, a junk removal company that pulled in $3.04 million in revenue in 2025. Their story is reshaping what young entrepreneurship looks like in America.
From a Local Dump to a Real Business
1 The spark for Junk Teens came in Norwood, Massachusetts, where Kirk McKinney launched the business with his younger brother Jacob in February 2021. At the time, Kirk was a junior in high school. Jacob was a freshman. 9 Years earlier, Kirk had been riding his bike when he stumbled upon his local dump. He saw a really cool radio and asked if he could have it. He took it home, cleaned it up, and it worked perfectly. It became his prized possession.
That moment changed everything. 1He sold abandoned items he found on Facebook Marketplace as a side hustle, and hanging out at the dump, he met people willing to pay local teenagers to remove more unwanted junk from their homes.
1 He quit a grocery store job and enlisted his brother, who was a high school freshman at the time. They bought a used 2006 Ford F-150 pickup truck with $4,000 of their own money to haul junk.
The early days were slow. 1When the brothers were both in high school, they often only worked a job or two per week, finding time after school or during weekends. But things picked up fast. 1Their first year in business nearly cleared six figures in profit, so the brothers bought their first dump truck.
Gen Z teen brothers junk removal startup Junk Teens Massachusetts
Building a Million Dollar Operation
The numbers behind Junk Teens tell a remarkable growth story. Here is a quick look at how the company scaled:
| Year | Key Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2021 | Launched with a $4,000 pickup truck |
| 2022 | Nearly six figures in profit; bought first dump truck |
| 2023 | Rented warehouse space at $1,450/month |
| 2024 | Revenue topped $1.2 million |
| 2025 | Revenue hit $3.04 million; net profit over $686,000 |
| 2026 | Projecting $5 million in annual revenue |
1 Today, Junk Teens employs 10 full-time and roughly 10 to 15 part-time employees, all of whom are high school, college or gap-year students. The company’s fleet of five dump trucks now has two locations in eastern Massachusetts that collectively cover Boston and the Cape Cod area. 1 Junk Teens completed over 5,500 jobs in 2025, mostly residential and commercial junk removal. The company charges between $300 and $600 per job, on average, depending on the size and nature of the service.
The brothers plan to add two more trucks later in 2026.
The Secret Sauce: Hauling Meets Reselling
What sets Junk Teens apart from traditional junk haulers is the resale angle. Instead of dumping everything at the landfill, the brothers sort through every load.
1 Junk removal and reselling simply became the most fun and profitable part of their work, and customers showed more interest “when they knew that we were repurposing” their items, says Kirk McKinney.
The model works on two revenue streams:
- Removal fees paid by customers who need stuff hauled away
- Resale income from items that still have value, like furniture, appliances, bikes and electronics
11 The company donates usable items when possible, partnering with local organizations like Computers4People and Wellstrong, and hiring and training other teens in their first jobs.
This approach lines up with a much bigger shift happening across the industry. 18Environmentally conscious consumers are increasingly seeking out junk removal companies that prioritize sustainability. A survey by Nielsen found that 73% of global consumers are willing to change their consumption habits to reduce their environmental impact. This trend is driving the growth of green junk removal services.
“We try to repurpose as much as we can, one, because it saves on dump fees but two, it’s simply because I hate throwing things away and so does my brother.” – Kirk McKinney
How Social Media Fueled Their Rise
TikTok and Instagram played a massive role in growing Junk Teens from a neighborhood side hustle into a regional brand.
1 Junk Teens has more than 400,000 followers combined across Instagram and TikTok. 1 The McKinneys post instructional videos on YouTube to show their tens of thousands of followers how they negotiate pricing and the best ways to dispose, flip or donate different types of items.
Their content is raw and real. Videos of unexpected finds like Elvis Presley cardboard cutouts and vacuum-sealed frozen fish inside old freezers keep audiences hooked. 2Most of the business still comes from Facebook, Google and word-of-mouth. But the social media presence builds trust before customers ever pick up the phone.
This playbook is becoming common among Gen Z founders. 27A 2025 report found that more than 80% of Gen Z entrepreneurs describe their businesses as purpose-driven. 27For many in Gen Z, launching a business starts less with leasing an office and more with opening a TikTok account.
Junk Teens proves that a strong social media game can turn a local service into a recognized brand.
What Comes Next for Junk Teens
Both Kirk, 22, and Jacob, 20, are now studying entrepreneurship at Babson College while running the business. 1Each paid themselves salaries in the low-to-mid six figures in 2025. They used part of that money toward college tuition.
1 Junk Teens projects $5 million in annual revenue by the end of 2026. Their expansion plan involves covering the rest of Massachusetts before eventually opening more locations across the East Coast. 1 The brothers say they are open to potentially franchising the business, bringing on outside investors or even selling the business down the road, though that is not in their immediate plans.
They are riding a wave in a booming industry. 18The junk removal industry in the United States generated $10.4 billion in revenue in 2023. 19The market, currently valued at an estimated $15 billion in 2025, is projected to maintain a compound annual growth rate of 8% through 2033, reaching an estimated $27 billion.
Kirk McKinney summed up his drive best when he told CNBC: “I have a really strong feeling that after college, things are going to take off more than they ever have.”
In a world where most people see junk as a problem, two brothers from Massachusetts saw it as a goldmine. They did not wait for a perfect plan or outside funding. They grabbed a truck, got their hands dirty and built something real. Their story is proof that opportunity does not always come in a shiny package. Sometimes it is sitting right there at the dump, waiting for someone brave enough to pick it up. If their journey inspires you, drop your thoughts in the comments below and share this story with a young person who needs to hear it.
