Heritage Roundtable Insights

On April 28, 2009, Recycling Today convened nine scrap industry veterans for a discussion called the Heritage Roundtable. The event, sponsored by Metso Recycling, was held at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino during the 2009 Annual Convention of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. Moderators Brian Taylor and Jim Keefe of Recycling Today asked the assembled panel to consider several aspects of how the industry had changed and how they might advise those who will be in scrap industry leadership positions today and in the future. The participants were:
• Richard Abrams,  Consolidated Scrap Resources,  York, Pa.
• Yale Dorfman,  State Metal Industries, Camden, N.J.
• Irving Ehrenhaus,  Glenrich Metals, Forest Hills, N.Y.
• Kalman Gordon,  L. Gordon Iron & Metal Co.,  Statesville, N.C.
• Harry Kletter,  ISA Inc., Louisville, Ky.
• Stanley Kramer,  Kramer Metals Inc., Los Angeles
• Ira Moskowitz,  Moskowitz Bros. Inc., Cincinnati
• Stanton Moss,  Stanton A. Moss Inc., Bryn Mawr, Pa.
• Larry Sax,  Recycling Today Global Edition  contributing editor and retired  nonferrous scrap trader.

Recycling Today: Looking back at the past 50 years or so, what is the biggest change you have seen—a business condition or a work practice that is very different from what was going on 40 or 50 years ago?

Irving Ehrenhaus: I started on my own as a broker and an aluminum specialist. But I learned over the years that you have to change. Although I was always looked at as an aluminum exporter, I’ve handled every metal when it’s become practical, whether it be copper/brass, lead, zinc, stainless. I changed because there were just certain times when you couldn’t make a living [as a specialist].

Yale Dorfman: Regarding China, I think there are about 20 percent of foreign attendees here at [the 2009 ISRI Convention and Exposition], and they’re here to buy whatever they can get their hands on. They can take a load of mixed aluminum [and] sort it by hand. When I was in China, I saw them strip copper by hand with a pen-knife, and it was amazing how fast they were doing it. I saw smelters that were very updated, but their method of preparing the scrap was very ancient. Where we might have 100 people, they might have 2,000 people. They’re going to be a major factor not just overseas, but over here. We’re going to have to contend with it. We’re going to have to be better.

Ira Moskowitz: The decline of manufacturing and the decline of industry in our country has changed the way we have operated. The shift of this country being to one of service industries, we’ve lost labor markets to Mexico, and they’ve lost them to China.

Stanley Kramer: When I started in this business, often when you sold aluminum, it was aluminum. Today, what alloy it is and whether it’s new or used, or whether it’s industrial scrap or from a demolition job—it’s critical. There are a lot of specifics, and I think that’s a huge difference in the scrap business.