Javier Perez and Maria Flores are the proud owners of Recicla Centro, a ferrous recycling company in Puebla, central Mexico. Javier’s father, Crescencio Perez, started the family business from scratch in the mid 1960s collecting metals on a bicycle. Today the firm has 20 trucks on the road and processes 42 000 tonnes of mostly steel scrap per year.
With a population of more than 25 million, the Mexico City metropolitan is one of the largest urban areas in the world. It takes a lot of patience and at least two hours in a taxi through crazy traffic to leave the city behind. But once you’re on the 150D motorway connecting Mexico’s capital with Puebla, it’s full speed ahead, crossing spectacular volcanic scenery with the famous Popocatepetl volcano to the west and La Malinche to the east.
MOTORWAY ADVERTISING
An eye-catcher of a different kind is a giant billboard which looms up next to the motorway some 30 km from Puebla, announcing: ‘One day even this billboard will be scrap and then Recicla Centro is gonna recycle it.’
‘Did you spot it?’ asks Javier Perez first thing on our arrival at the gates of Recicla Centro. ‘Honestly, thanks to that billboard a lot of people know our name,’ Perez says over coffee in his office overlooking the yard. ‘More importantly, it may help a bit to raise awareness of recycling and sustainability.’
It’s business as usual at Recicla Centro’s main facility with incoming scrap being welcomed at the weighbridge and undergoing radioactivity checks while material handlers are busy loading the shear. Furthermore, two workers wearing protection clothing are cutting a huge robotic machine with a blow torch. ‘That’s heavy stuff containing a lot of metals. We collect, dismantle and scrap it as good as we can.’
SMALL COLLECTORS
Javier Perez is a second-generation owner in the family business which was founded in the 1960s by his father Crescencio Perez, his uncle Jose Tavera and Esperanza Chavarria Martinez. ‘My dad started very small. He had nothing. He collected scrap on his bicycle and sold it. One day his bike got stolen and he went almost bankrupt. But he was persistent, he did not give up.’
Initially the business focused on broad recyclables, from paper to metals, ‘In 1964, Volkswagen and (later) tools manufacturer Stanley opened production sites in Puebla providing a growing inflow of production scrap. At this early stage, my father saw plenty of potential in Mexico’s industrial development.’
FORKLIFT DRIVER
Born in 1970, Perez has witnessed the family business mature. ‘I literally grew up in scrap,’ he says. ‘As long as I can remember…
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