welcome to bets on the future where we highlight the various career paths in the electrifying Metals World from the vehicle you ride in to the bridge holding and up metals are everywhere why not in your career too I’m Jennifer BS a medals industry veteran with almost 20 years experience here to highlight these incredible career paths As Told by the women who are living them this week we have the honor of interviewing Rose moach who took over the Reigns of her family scrap metal business with her brother in the late 1990s the family business established lished by her parents in 1956 holding degrees from both pulk State College and the University of Florida she’s worked in various roles in the industry currently serving as TFO and handling multiple responsibilities from Inventory management to operational duties she’s been actively involved in the recycled materials Community serving as the past president of the Southeast region of the Institute of scrap recycling Industries which is a trade Association and as the current president of the Florida recyclers Association Beyond her professional life life she is a 10-year breast cancer survivor actively engaged with the Breast Cancer Foundation

of Central Florida co-chairing a Survivor group and helping raise funds for patients in need well first off I want to say thank you for for joining us today uh I understand that you are an incredibly busy person we did get to meet two or three weeks ago I want to say um I’ll just say last month because spoiler like we’re recording this before we’re g to release it in a probably a month um but uh thank you for coming on here for those that cannot see uh Rose moach has joined us she is from Allied in Florida and so I just want to uh thank you for coming on and you know I’m gonna allow you to introduce yourself real quick okay well thanks for having me I appreciate the opportunity uh my name is Rose Mock I’m the president of Allied scrap processors in Lakeland Florida um my company has been here since 1956 I’m the past president of the Southeast region of isra um the president of Florida recyclers Association I’ve highly been highly involved in isy since I was a young woman in the industry um and that’s how I

met you Jennifer actually as one of the is events yes um I’ve heard your name throughout the industry for for several years but it wasn’t until rather recently uh we actually got the opportunity to to you know actually meet in person because we’ve tried uh a couple times to you know uh meet up and it’s just it’s a little hectic at at those events yeah to say the least yes very um for those who may not be listening uh or who may be listening and not aware of what isra is it’s the Institute of scrap recycling Industries it’s essentially the recycling Association for our industry and on this podcast we are highlighting career that exist in the metals world and so Rose starts off on more of the raw material side of things you know you’re kind of starting the the circular process I’m curious you’ve been in this industry a while how did you find it Like H what what Drew you to this industry well I was born into it my mom and dad started the business in 1956 uh true story uh my mother worked for a scrapyard in Tampa she

was the scale by and the bookkeeper um the guy’s the man’s name was Saul Walker there are still some people that are still alive that remember his name um and when my dad came back from World War II jobs were hard to find and his sister had a grocery store and my dad went to work for her and he was a butcher but he didn’t like it and um my mom said well hey you know we had get a lot of call-ins you know we need the money we got two young girls do you want to you you know I’ll teach you this how to scrap and you can basically be a peddler and that gives us extra money so Dad said sure so um according to the families you know they were pretty much of a disgrace because he became a junk man quote and uh Mom and Dad saved their money and they came that was in Tampa and they came to Lakeland and bought some property and went to the scrap business however before that happened my my dad’s brother uh was uh a rancher in chelin which is there’s

still not a whole lot going on in chelin which is north central Florida but my mother was like I’m a city girl I am not going in the middle of the country so they flipped a coin and my mother won and that’s how they got in the scrap business that’s so I mean that’s pretty incredible yeah that’s all they got SCB this so we were raised in the business uh my brother’s my partner and um him and I are 50/50 and we’re bookends we make great Partners um because we bring completely different things to the table um but we grew up in the business um we worked I mean I did everything I mean did the scale first you know we had to clean had to type back then we had typewriters um you know make invoices things like that then I worked in the warehouse then went on the scale um I did the forklifts I did the loaders the only thing I didn’t do with the cranes cuz we had cable cranes back then and for one I couldn’t reach pedal because I’m still really short and um so my dad

wouldn’t let me on there and uh so work you know any school breaks or whatever and then um I have an accounting degree from the University of Florida um when we got out of college we weren’t allowed to come back to the business we had to go work other places so that we could decide if we really wanted it or not so I did we we all did and uh so then decided to come back I don’t know in the 80s in the um early 80s I I have to ask where did you go after college was it like still within is the industry or was it completely no no completely different I actually sold Office Machines back then you know when that was before uh computers computers didn’t come out into the late 80s so um I sold uh dictation machines and calculators expensive calculators and uh expensive typewriters and those kind than that’s pretty cool I mean yeah imagining your sales skills probably sharpened yeah during that time frame and uh so then I decided uh to come back to the business and of course my parents were it’s not a revolving

door you’re either in or you’re out and um so you know it was it was something I’d always wanted to do so then you know I stayed and and my brother is here and so we eventually bought the business from uh our parents in the 990s and so we’re we’re here as as equal Partners well congratulations on probably what almost 30 years of ownership with with your brother then at this point yes that’s pretty impressive um you know uh I I come from the millennial uh uh era if you will and our generation just does not stay at companies too long so it’s really quite incredible that you got the opportunity to check something else out and you’re like no I’m coming back and not only coming back but you’re also going to buy into the business later on I mean that not every family generation or family business I should say has the Next Generation ready to do that ready or able to do that and you had two well right I mean it’s true um we have two sisters that aren’t aren’t in the business aren’t interested um I think it’s I

think it’s a calling I think it’s a passion I think it’s it’s what you like you know I’ll go places that are quiet and I’ll say I don’t know how you work here there’s no way I could work here it’s too quiet there’s not enough things going on at the same time I would be you know absolutely out of my mind because it’s it’s there’s not enough uh interaction yes and our you know our industry it touches all types of lives I mean you’re dealing you know what I we deal with the public you’re going to deal with you know the corporate exec itive you’re going to deal with um a peddler um you’ve got every Slice of Life you could possibly imagine that is going to touch you when you’re going to touch them and to me that that’s what the treasure is that’s the most exciting part because we get to understand life as in a full circle and how it takes all of us to make the world go around and we need all of us and um you know no one’s you know you’re not better than somebody else and

somebody’s not less than you because without those pieces none of us could function and for me it’s a reminder every day that you know I’m blessed that you know God has put everyone where we should be and if you’re not happy where you are you have to find out where you’re happy but at the end of the day happy is an inside job it’s not where you’re at where you’re at is is simply semantics it doesn’t have anything to do with anything yes um it uh because you always have to take yourself with you and um you know I think for for people I think that’s the hardest part you know you forget you have you’re taking yourself with you well that’s yeah go on no I said I have to remind myself of that too you to take myself with me well that’s what’s interesting about this podcast is and one of the main reasons why I wanted to highlight this is there are a good amount of people out there that are not happy where they are right um and that maybe a career change is what would help them or um

get them into a a a better headspace right yes happiness on the inside got to work on it but sometimes it’s also your your you know external environment where maybe it’s not the right job for you right and it seems like right you were pretty fortunate in in regards to having at least even the introduction into our world so that you could even know that it was a possibility and ultimately it seems like it’s the right fit for you well you know I know that I’m I know that I’m blessed that I I got to experience this this industry um and and it’s a good it’s a good bad thing because and what I mean by that is when I go out into the world um it is very difficult for me to interact with people um that aren’t as uh I want to say driven that aren’t as um exposed to all types of things like I talked about you know that aren’t open-minded as far as more acceptance yeah um more understanding um and you know and their world is in a different place um so it’s hard for me because

I don’t have anything to say I mean I don’t have not only do I not have anything to say I don’t even care to have anything to say I mean I’m not interested yep um and you know I joined I’m not really an organ I’m an I I’m highly involved in the trade Association because I believe in our industry I did it and uh I believe in our industry and uh you know we’re the beginning and end of the circle and the world can’t survive without us and we have to tell people that I mean you wouldn’t be able to afford anything without the scrap metal industry this wouldn’t happen do it not just afford wouldn’t wouldn’t have it like it just you wouldn’t have it wouldn’t exist we can’t mine enough Metals out there to produce the material that we we have let alone where would we put the recycled materials anyway right like where they exactly they would just pile up somewhere um right you know in Florida uh I haven’t spent a lot of time in Florida trading in in my days but what I do know is from um some

of my former colleagues talking about some of the interesting things that they’ve seen come across um their scales in Florida is there anything um that you know strikes out to you in your memory of something that was truly unique that came across your your scale that maybe you just didn’t typically see that most people wouldn’t even realize could be recycled or was recycled I can’t think of anything that I can’t think of anything that would be um because I’ve just seen it all and some of it just becomes normal after a while so it’s not anything that just sticks out I think it’s how people decide they’re going to bring scrap metal in is the most creative part I had we have one guy who got who made a well he still drives it he made a VW Bug into a dump trailer and a BW it’s a riot an absolute riot yeah and it works and everything um we’re gonna we’re gonna offline after this because I’m going to ask for a photo of that ear well the next time he comes in I’ll take a picture of it yes because we’re everybody’s

like oh he’s back the bug is back that’s amazing and you know that a lot of people just don’t realize that you know that Volkswagen back it it could have it could have been crushed recycled you know into into a new car but you know it still got a little bit of life left and you know it’s it’s one of things that you know you’re you’re for those that are listening and not viewing uh roses in our car currently um because your your office is a little bit more hectic and busy these days so uh it’s a little bit of quieter spot but your car is probably made up of some part of Volkswagen Bug at some point oh yeah you know there’s probably a percentage there well and I think other people you know uh people don’t realize you know energy is endless so you know everything you know that energy travels so everything that we have comes from somewhere else MH so you know there’s a part of of it with us and to me I think that’s you know I remind myself of that because I think it’s very unique that

when you do truly recycle um there’s always a piece of whatever it was always it’s never going to go away it’s inherent in what you have uh I was joking around with somebody the other day that was outside the industry um because I was trying to explain to them how an aluminum can for instance can go from the shelf and within 60 days be used and recycled and put back on the Shelf but I made the comment that you’re probably drinking out of somebody else’s can 60 days ago and I realized it’s probably not the best selling strategy yeah probably not I would I wouldn’t say that no I wouldn’t say that but but you know energetically it could be yes it could be and obviously the furnace kill any thing on that it would clean it out completely exactly exactly when when you’re looking at you know your your current business and and where the industry is going because you’re so involved in those trade associations where do you see our industry going um in the next five ten years well I don’t see the metal industry really changing the fundamentals aren’t going

to change I mean you you need scrapyards you need the processing equipment you need um The Mills to melt it um you know the technology changes um so who knows what the advances advancements are going to be um you know there could be a huge leap and it it could stay the same in the next five years um you know when I was a kid you had to uh either strip copper or you had to melt it to get the insul or burn it to get the insulation off now with all the laws you can’t do that so then you have Choppers well the Choppers came in um that didn’t exist when I was a kid it didn’t happen you didn’t have the technology for it to happen to begin with um so now we have a whole secondary Market that we never had before because we didn’t we didn’t have the ability to have it happen right right so if if something changes technology wise then you’re going to have a big leap um other than you know you’re just going to have more steel mills buy more scrapyards and then it’s going

to be more of a consolidation um but that’s that’s not a that’s not a fundamental technology change of the business at all it’s just who you know where it’s who who owns it it doesn’t it doesn’t change how it happens right um so I really you know I I personally don’t see a lot of that changing rapidly in the next five years um you know I think we aren’t addressing you know the other things that are going into a car or anything else um and what I mean by that is as we have more things that cannot be recycled then you’re gonna have less and less to recycle yeah yeah it’s G to become more challenging they’re going to be become more challenging yeah and the list is long and you know you can read it in any industry paper you can read it in any newspaper you can read it and you know listen to any mainstream media um you know it may be convenient and it may be cool and it may be fun to have it um but then what do you do with it after yes and I think me

as a person living in the world um I think that we as a society don’t give that enough Credence of what’s going to happen after yes there’s um I recently learned about an award that isra does um the again the scrap recycling Association it’s called design for recycling right this kind of touches on what you’re talking about here where a lot of companies have not in the past historically in the past designed within life in mind right um that’s obviously becoming more and more uh I think more companies are becoming aware of that so isra started this award I want to say 10 or 15 years ago where they’re awarding companies that have designed their product with that end of life in mind with the intent that it can be recycled um so I I find that fascinating that um well we should we should start there you it’s the chicken egg um but I I think it’s a little longer than 15 years but I don’t I lose track of time but um and I may be wrong on what the actual Catalyst was but if I remember correctly um one of the

main catalysts for that was the um pcbs in ballast and um in the refrigerators really and you those things you had the in the ballast all the light fixtures and then you had them in the refrigerators and uh so then it became a shredder issue so if you had a shredder then you were shredding those appliances okay and then you were going to have pcbs and then you’re the bad guy for having the pcbs and then you’re going to get fined and EPA and blah blah blah so is collectively with the shredders it was a big deal so we were going back to the you know the makers and they’re like hey it’s not our problem that’s your problem so it eventually evolved to where you know we made enough noise that the manufacturers had to get the pcbs out of the ballast and they had to get them out of the out of the appliance that’s good but and then and like I said I could be wrong on the timeline but that was a huge that was a huge deal and that’s what started the the whole design for recycling conversation and

uh got that ball rolling um Manny Bodner if my mind remembers right Manny is from Texas he was he was a big proponent of that when I was just starting in um the isra board and all well if you’re if you’re listening to this now and you work for an oam or um a product manufacturer and you have a pretty cool product that has been designed to be recycled at end of life uh applications for the 2024 award are available and out right now so you do have some time to to apply um or pass this along to your friend that works at you know that cool manufacturing facility that’s got that um that product in mind so that that’s really wonderful to hear that it’s been around for that long and that it’s been making that big of an impact on us and our industry again I think it’s really incredible that you’ve had three four decades I mean even count some of your childhood um in this industry and you’re like no I’m staying that’s I this is exactly why I want to share it with more people because well there’s there’s

there’s no job that can compare to it no there’s nothing that can compare yes to to to what we do there’s nothing to me there’s nothing no and you get to see the full circular you know economy if you want to you know call it that from a manufacturing perspective you get to go into industrial accounts and you get to see what they’re making and you know what we’re doing here and um be a part of that and then send it back to the Mills you’re then going to sell you know the steel or the aluminum back to the manufacturer and it’s it’s pretty interesting i i people don’t realize how much manufacturing um is actually still here in the US there could be more obviously there should be a whole lot more yes yes I know and we’re seeing more of um investments from other uh countries actually coming to the United States because we are a scrap rich country and that they’re recognizing that we do have the available raw materials from folks like yourself um able to support that and you’re you’re seeing that in in several really big Investments that

have come to the states recently even in the past you know six months there’s been major news groundbreaking no it’s true I mean we we really need to we need to be back to a manufacturing country yes you know I look at it this way it’s like you know um white collar’s great and you know service is great but who’s going to fix your toilet and who’s going to build your house and you know how’s all that going to happen for you I mean AI is not going to build your house it may do the it may do the plan but it’s not physically going to go out there to do it right and um we as a society don’t give Credence to the trades like we need to no there’s um a a company out there called degreef free and they help essentially guide I’ll call them kids but they’re teenagers right High School um students and even their families to understand that there are a lot of career paths really lucrative career paths that don’t involve college right obviously you you went to college but your your par you grew up in

a business that um your parents you know recognize that okay get the degree but you need to go try something else before you realize you know what what’s available here and I’m very happy that your your your family recognized that um there are a lot of people out there that you know we learn different ways and so maybe we should recognize that we should have careers in different ways not just sitting at a desk not just you know staring at a screen all day there are ways that people would really enjoy working if it was in a you know a different mindset and I think that’s slowly shifting that you know college isn’t necessarily the answer what we’re pushing on our kids as much anymore no it’s true it needs to start in the schools yes it really needs to start in the schools and uh until until we get there to figure out what their children’s Rel their aptitudes are to direct them because that’s if you’re d doing something that you’re good at you’re going to enjoy it and you’re going to have a happy heart yes but we we’re missing that

we’re missing that whole boat well I I want to say a huge thank you uh to you for taking the time uh I know you’re extremely busy and I really appreciate you know what you’ve shared with us what you’re um you know seeing in the industry what you’ve seen in the industry on one last note one last question for those that are interested in our industry do you have any advice on how to get in or how to find us or any advice that you would give to someone that’s starting out fresh in our industry I would say that there are there are several different ways you can go in the industry um depending on uh what you excel at or what you what you like um depending on the the companies um so if if you like dealing with people you know being a buyer doing that type of thing so you’re dealing with a lot of different people if if that’s not you um and you would prefer the equipment and the and the operations then go for that um go for what you like in the industry because it really is

um so varied what you can do Under the same umbrella um more than I think any other um type of industry and um then you just got to find what what you like well hopefully um somebody out there has listened to this and maybe gotten inspired at least to check out what we do here um so well I hope so well I hope so I mean I hope that um you know they’re inspired to uh to be part of uh what makes the world go around in a in a in an economic um you know we’re green before green was cool that the whole thing you know um to make the world a better place yeah we’re The Originals on that one we are the originals We Are The Originals again Rose thank you so much I really appreciate it Rose well thank you for asking me to be on your podcast yeah any anytime and I I look forward to uh meeting up with you hopefully in Vegas this year maybe no I won’t be at Vegas I’ll be doing the southeast regions but I’m not I’m not doing the national stuff all

righty well I will definitely see you at the uh the next Regional as revent for sure take care thanks a lot all right bye