Recycling veteran Ben Sacco dies at 87

Archiv – Ben Sacco, the well-known founder and Chairman of Sierra International Machinery and Sierra Recycling and Demolition, has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 87.United States | Ben Sacco, the well-known founder and Chairman of Sierra International Machinery and Sierra Recycling and Demolition, has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 87.
In 1947, he and partner Morris Rosenberg founded the Sierra Bag Co. in Bakersfield, California, to produce agricultural bags for the area’s growers. Twelve years later, Mr Sacco founded Sierra Iron and Metal to focus on reclaiming metals – a company which evolved into Sierra Recycling and Demolition whose activities include recycling as well as the clearing and cleaning up of land for redevelopment.
The bagging company was sold in 1987 and Mr Sacco used the proceeds to launch Sierra International Machinery to manufacture and sell equipment used in the processing of recycled materials. ’He was 65 years old at the time,’ notes his son John. ’At an age when most people are looking to retire, he was entering another phase of his entrepreneurial life.’
Ben Sacco was born in a small town outside Salerno, Italy, and emigrated to the USA in 1935. After serving in the US Army Air Corps during World War II, he moved to California with just US$ 90 in his pocket to work in agriculture.
His two companies remain family owned: John is President of Sierra Recycling and Demolition, while his other son Philip is President of Sierra International Machinery. Combined, the two businesses employ some 125 people.
Ben Sacco is survived by his wife Eunice, his sons John and Philip, daughters Angela Aragon and Laura Sacco, and six grandchildren.