Page 41 from: March 2013

41March 2013

ISRI chair Jerry Simms division – fell ill, and Mike Rosen, then the firm’s secretary/treasurer, asked me to fill in. I knew
nothing about that niche, but Rosen encouraged

me to take on the new challenge. Although my

heart was in scrap, I took the new-metal reins

and have led the division ever since, now as

executive vice president. I’ve spent a lot of time

learning that niche, and I’ve come to like it a lot.’

What do you like most about the scrap
industry?
‘My real like is actually something I don’t real-

ly do in the industry: I’m an equipment guy. I

am amazed at the processes. I love watching

shredders, cranes, shears and choppers. I also

like the fact that recycling is good for sustain-

ability, it saves energy, it prevents the depletion

of our natural resources, it preserves precious

raw materials, and it greatly reduces emissions

of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Another thing is that the people in the industry

are incredible. ISRI (the Institute of Scrap Recy-

cling Industries), for instance, has a great staff

and volunteers working for the industry. We

work on so many issues that determine the

future of our industry, and it’s so much more

enjoyable working with good people.’

How did you get involved in ISRI?
‘While I was working for Atlas Metals, the com-

pany had me go to meetings of the Institute of

Scrap Iron and Steel (ISIS), the predecessor of

ISRI, where I got information about the trade,

transportation and legislative and regulatory

issues. I must admit that, in the beginning, I was

not an active guy. Up to 1991, I was more a sit-in-

the-back-of-a-meeting-room person. In that

year, Atlas first got named as a defendant in a

Superfund lawsuit. Superfund was a federal pro-

gramme of the US Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA) to clean up the nation’s uncon-

trolled hazardous waste sites, which included

scrap yards. I wrote letters to ISRI arguing against

its Superfund policy and that’s how I drew the

attention of ISRI officers. The best thing, of

course, was the 1999 passage of the federal Super-

fund Recycling Equity Act, which secured Super-

fund liability relief for scrap companies.

ISRI then asked me to become more strongly

involved in association matters, which I did.

Over the years, I worked my way up in the ISRI

organisation. I chaired some important com-

mittees such as the government affairs commit-

tee; I was a member of the stormwater steering

committee, non-ferrous division director, direc-

tor-at-large, chair of the ISRI PAC Leadership

Council, member of the national board of direc-

tors, and head of task forces that have addressed

the Superfund Recycling Equity Act (SREA),

automotive mercury switches and other issues.

In 1999, ISRI first approached me for a position

with their national office, but that was not a

good time for me to take on that commitment

because my children were still too young. In

2005, I was approached by past ISRI chair Crick-

et Williams asking me to run for national sec-

retary/treasurer. This time I knew I wanted to

do it. Atlas’ ceo Mike Rosen was more than sup-

portive, so we said “yes”. In 2006, I was elected

as secretary/treasurer at ISRI’s first convention

at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las

Vegas and last year I was voted ISRI chair.’

Now you are chair of ISRI, how does it
feel to be ‘the most powerful recycler
in the USA’?
‘I am certainly not powerful. I am a volunteer

who occupies the highest volunteer position

with ISRI. I feel it is a fantastic honour and

privilege. Being an ISRI national officer is basi-

cally a 10-year commitment. I think that both

as an individual and as a company you have to

be prepared to donate much time to the indus-

try. I devote many, many hours per week to my

ISRI work. What I like most about being ISRI

chair is being a part of the process. I don’t feel

different. I feel like working as an equal among

all my peers, and that’s a privilege. The bottom

line is, I’ve gone from a peddler to an industry

chairman, and I think that’s pretty cool.’

What are the current threats to recycling
in the USA?
‘We’ve got a boatload of problems out there.

There’s a myriad of minefields we have to nav-

igate through. If I had to name the three biggest

threats, the first would be the EPA’s definition

of solid waste – what we call the DSW. This has

You majored in philosophy, so what led
you to make that choice?
‘I went to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio,

and during my freshman year, I took an elective

course called Epistemology 101. Epistemology

concerns itself with questions such as how

exactly do we know anything and whether

things are true or not – like with the proverbial

question “If a tree falls in the forest and nobody

is around to hear it, does it still make a noise?”

Such questions intrigued me and I took more

philosophy classes until it became my major. I

ended up liking to be a reader of philosophy

and it gave me good analytical and cognitive

skills. I think I was most fascinated with the free

will versus determinism argument.’

How and why did you get involved in
the recycling industry?
‘Initially for the money! During high school

and college, I worked during summer vacations

for Miles Alloy, our family friend’s scrap com-

pany. After graduation, I moved to Colorado

and I wanted to get a job to make some money.

Me, my brother Bob and our cousin started a

scrap business. We had a little flatbed pick-up

truck and a scale and we would do a route, vis-

iting electricians and plumbers and buying

scrap that we would haul back to our garage to

sort it. We sold the material to larger scrap yards

in the area, usually to Atlas Metal & Iron in

Denver. One day, Don Rosen, then Atlas’ pres-

ident, said: “I like you guys a lot, but stop calling

me every day for prices. I guarantee I’ll be fair

and pay you the top price.” That was the start

of Mile High Metals and my tremendous rela-

tionship with Atlas and the Rosen family.

Later, I got a part-time job at Atlas Metal and,

one day, the owner offered me a full-time job

which sounded very attractive to me, so I took

his offer and quit law school, and I have been

working with Atlas and the Rosen family for

the 35 years since then.

I learned the business from the ground up,

spending the first few months in the warehouse

identifying and sorting metals – basic scrap stuff

– and then progressed to buying at the scale,

which I did for about a year. I moved on to trad-

ing and administration, brokering truckloads

of scrap, organising transportation and negoti-

ating export letters of credit. Around 1988, the

manager of Atlas Metal Sales – the company’s

non-ferrous service centre and new-metal sales

‘I love watching
shredders, cranes,

shears and choppers.’

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