welcome to a scrap life a podcast solely focus on the hustlers Grinders operators and business owners who live and breathe the scrap metal industry every day we are the original recyclers no suits required just guts and hard work here is your host Brett Eckhart all right I’m back with one of the good guys in our industry a guy I look up to a lot um and a guy that I feel like has probably a lot in common with myself and that I don’t think he ever takes a breath and comes up for air he’s always hustling always trying always pushing to do the next thing I got Jim key with uh I’m recycling today Gia media right I mean I think it you whatever whatever is the time whether it’s whatever yeah whatever brand we’re talking about whatever brand we’re talking about but man it’s about that time we’re getting everybody getting fired up for the scrap Expo round two and uh I couldn’t think of a better guy to come on tell us about it and uh let’s talk about what’s going to happen this year thanks for coming on hey thanks

for having me again Brad it’s great to great to be back with you appreciate the opportunity a lot um yeah we’re really excited about about scrap Expo this year of course we’re you and I were just talking we’re just coming off the um off of producing our first battery and critical Metals Recycling conference down in Atlanta Georgia and that was a huge success and that’s awesome so we we were really really honored to be able to host that kind of an event for the industry because batteries are such a challenge for the industry today but at the other on the other hand such an opportunity and so uh so it was great event um but scrap Expo man it’s really shaping up to be be a hell of an event this year we last year of course as you we talked it was our launch year but we had we had about 900 people there yeah what’s crazy is um last year we had outdoor in the live demo Area 11 different exhibitors and they had about 20 pieces of equipment that people could jump in and operate everything from wire Street strippers to

car deep pollution to Genesis shears and Cena Bogan material handlers you know um so a lot of different stuff this year we’ve got uh 16 outdoor exhibitors and a couple more people way over twice as much space and as it were counting today and it’s early because people are still finalizing things we’ve got over 30 pieces of equipment that are going to be on the show for balers loggers shears mobile shears um Harris is going to have their new Baylor uh Auto logger and Baler there Sierra is going to have one of their material handlers there as well as a logger um caterpillar is going to be there cinebogen so many more we’ve got a real quick it’s like 16 to 30 right I give double and almost double I mean what’s driving what what what do you think was so successful from last year’s show be I mean it’s tough to throw a show it’s tough to put one on you’re number one and feel like you’re making some traction and having having some success and uh because it’s a lot of work I mean it’s a you have to kind of look

out on the time Horizon say okay this we gotta we gotta do this for a couple years to gain the traction but just on a simple metric on a piece of equipment Outdoors you know what do you think drove more people more interest this year than last year what what do you what are you guys building on success wise well a lot of people were not convinced that we could do it last year they they it was such a foreign concept to have basically an operating scrap yard at an expo site and yeah and we did it we pulled it off and so um a number of folks who walked the show last year as vendors were totally impressed by it many of our attendees who walked away they walked away saying man I wish I would have brought more of my guys you know uh I wish more my team could have been here um because they again they’d never experienced anything like it didn’t know what to experience and so they were really really pumped about what they experienced so you know listen there’s a lot of small to medium-sized scrap

yards across our country who are they just don’t have access to as much information or the opportunity to check out equipment or to learn technical information about maintaining shears balers what have you um as we provide at scrap Expo and being in Louisville Kentucky it’s easy for people to get to it’s less expensive to stay there very attractive for a lot of people I think that’s one of the reasons okay like just logistically geographically I think that’s one of the reasons why um Israel’s National Convention has so much success this year Nashville’s a fun city you know there’s it’s a switch up from Vegas you know but one of the reasons why is that it’s the proximity of so many uh people from our industry to be able to travel there and not have to fly across the country but to be able to literally get in a car drive and be there and and enjoy and partake I think was one of the big drivers of success a Nashville is is a fun is a fun city but I don’t necessarily think that’s the only reason why and I don’t even think that’s

the biggest reason why that people enjoyed that I feel like getting getting out of Vegas you know for a little bit and being able to go and and see it from a different perspective is is what what why that why it had success this year and people talked about it which I think that’s going to be the reason the Big Driver on Louisville and the scrap Expo is the proximity of how many people can actually come attend like look cost aside you know where it’s affordable but just the proximity of how many people you can reach out and touch people can get in a car and drive down for a day or two and really part partake is got to be one of the big reasons why that’s a that’s a good spot there’s no question about it and and bear in mind that you know scrap exposed two days so yeah you can arrive the morning we start Tuesday morning and be gone Wednesday night if that’s what you want to do right if you want to stay and do a Bourbon Trail tour or something like that in Louisville check out the

Lewis Louisville Slugger Museum or what have you um you could do all of those things but scrap Expo you can take in in two days and um it’s a quick hit kind of event and that’s what it’s designed to be that’s awesome so I mean I I’m a big proponent of scrap Expo for a couple reasons and which is why I want to do these podcasts a I want to promote it because I think that it’s being done for the right reasons um B you know I appreciate someone that’s gonna try and put change and innovate right so when you when I think about you know our industry and the people talk about consolidation a lot and the you know the big big steel mills or buying you know scrap processors and being able to feed themselves and whatever else and while that is going on I think what is understated in our industry is all the small medium-sized operators they’re still out there that have thriving businesses or they’re trying to grow their businesses family businesses multi-generational businesses that this show is kind of designed for um I mean it’s it’s

it’s designed for people to look at a piece of equipment and not only just look at it but then actually be able to like watch it operate get in the cab run it see it move and wiggle and feel the adjustments feel that the differences between one piece and another and and kind of look at the density of the Bale or whatever that is and you just don’t get that at most other conventions but this this event is like I feel like for my people right so like people say why are you so behind it I’m like because it’s like my it’s like my my people it’s a small medium-sized operators that are that get something they probably get the most out of it I mean you guys are doing you know everything from you know Baylor maintenance to material handler maintenance you know so you can bring your maintenance guy and and let them listen to what you know what you should be looking for you know as preventative or whatever you know maintenance items that you’re trying to implement into your company like it’s a true true blue like blue collar

show is that am I looking at the right way listen that’s the way again that’s the way the Expo was built that’s the vision behind scrap Expo We Know listen recycling today magazines have been published since 1963. we have a distribution of you know over 18 000 Nationwide we know because of the demographics of our readership that there are thousands of the scrap yards around the country that you that you mentioned that are independent small some mom and pop some two three yards um smaller facilities we know there are also thousands of auto dismantlers out there many of these companies not well served by any annual event and there’s nothing where they can go and test equipment you know we had an attendee come last year they were looking shopping for shears mobile shear and they were able to jump in a piece of equipment and run four different shears that day right yeah they made up their mind and they bought what they wanted right they got the owners company said to me listen we’re a small operator I would have had to fly around the country to go to different yards I

couldn’t have taken my guys to do that we couldn’t afford to function like that and so listen being in a place like Louisville being in a place that’s accessible is important to those small to medium-sized operators and there’s a lot of value in fact one of the things that we did this year with our pricing schedule and this was based on feedback from people who came last year the more people you bring from your company the cheaper it gets and we have you know good discounts for for people who bring in three four or five we had companies bringing 10 12 people last year um 100 and so um so again we’ve continued to try to morph the model the business model behind scrap Expo so that caters to those types of operators so that it it’s cost effective for them to bring additional yard managers or supervisors or the you know the person who runs their bailing operation or whatever it is in their particular plant it’s also like an awesome you know I always I push it a lot but I always say you’re you know you’re net worth is your

network right like if you go if you can build your network of people that you trust their opinion that that do things that like let’s say I’m a medium-sized processor in Idaho and I know there’s someone down south or in on the east coast and there’s similar size of me or whatever and they’ll they they have certain markets that I don’t have and vice versa right though I I I’m like the ultimate scrap yard you know recycle facility junkie like I love to travel and look at and see how people are doing stuff because I know there’s one thing I can probably learn or pick up and bring back over to one of my course right and then the same thing goes when you’re at an event like scrap Expo is you get a network with people that are about your size or you know within within reason right so you’re sitting there going hey you’re over here in in Louisiana or hey you’re over here in Kentucky or wherever it is and how are you guys doing this or what do you guys so when you’re out there looking at the equipment

or whatever you can you can like you have you can have a like a peer-to-peer type conversation and I think that that networking component and and introducing yourself to people and talking to people and hey where are you guys at what do you guys do how do you guys do it man that’s probably one of the biggest if you don’t if you got an equipment guy and and you just want to go and network with you know life-size like-minded individuals I think that there’s an opportunity at this Expo as well there is in fact we’ve added some networking um to this year’s event we receive the same feedback and and there’s there’s opportunity during the lunches and and during the different presentations throughout the day to do that networking but being that we’re in a place like Louisville Kentucky we um we’re adding this year we’re going to be September 12th and 13th in at the kec facility in Louisville but we added Tuesday night a dessert dessert reception and bourbon tasting so it’s just a networking opportunity for people to come after go out have a dinner do whatever

it is that works for you for dinner come back join up with a whole group of scrap guys and do some bourbon tasting enjoy some desserts and and have a couple hours of networking and so that’s a new event that’s going to happen in conjunction with scrap Expo we’re we’re really excited about it we’ve also got you know those networking opportunities they go to other places too for example we’ve got a session plan for this year that’s going to talk about the history of the scrap industry the impact of vertical consolidation from the Mills coming into the business you talked about that but we’ve got some some Marquee speakers there you know John Sacco is going to be back with us to moderate that session this year but we’ve got Jay rubinovitz from alter Annie Rifkin from Metal X we’ve got George Adams from SA Recycling and Kevin gershowitz from gershaw out in Long Island who are all going to be joining John in that panel discussion right so you’ll have an opportunity to interact with those kinds of Industry pioneers and icons as well as small to medium-sized companies that will be

attending yeah I was going to bring that up you know but ultimately you beat me the puns which you know usually good at being people with a punch and I’m okay with that but I think that one thing I one thing about our industry and you probably go across other Industries not really just because I know ours is probably the best that’s that’s where where I’ve grown up with is every every one of those individuals you named started with a small company and every single one of them you know and every single one of them had the trials and tribulations of tough Economic Times every single one of them went through you know good scrap ears and terrible scrap ears I mean every single one of those and they found a way to build and grow and and create monster businesses right within our industry and you call them icons that that’s what they are right and I think the beauty of like being able to talk with someone peer-to-peer a small medium-sized operator and to understand that you know what you’re doing today um if done correctly can actually build

into something bigger down the road you know well all those individuals you discussed at one time were small medium-sized operators real businesses they’ve grown they’ve they’ve they’ve built real careers they’ve you know they’ve you know like a Ravenna Jay is a you know great example I got you know the utmost respect for Jay he’s been really good to me over the years and I remember him just as a young punk and college and I was just trying to figure out the industry and how I was going to grow my little you know Mom and Pop business and you know I think that’s and when he was working for snitchers snitcher steel at that at that point right right but a lot of people miss that they don’t know that I mean I remember George Adams sharing a story um at one point about when growing up in the scrap business right but his he was he was remembering riding in the back of his father’s pickup truck who was a peddler collecting scrap right yeah so you know it’s it it’s the roots of the scrap industry are that way right they come

out of a lot of small companies that worked really hard to be good at what they do in the markets that they serve yeah they caught some bread they took some punches just like just likes of us and I think that that’s why that you know it’s where you can come into an event like that and actually learn and what one thing that I I was looking at the lineup the non-speakers but the lineup of like what actually is going to be discussed and you and I had this conversation because I’m gonna do a session there and and I was like you know what I don’t want it to be is a scrap 101 and one thing about that I will say like a differentiator in this Expo um is you’re not gonna get just a one-on-one class of hey this is a material handler you know it’s got two points of contact and it lifts up like this like you’re gonna get like two three four hundred level classes information that will actually give you some real knowledge to take home like to your operation right so whether you’re listening

to absolutely industry icons and guys that have built real businesses and have been successful on industry described like how they did it or what their their take is on the future you’re also going to get information that you can actually take home and it’s useful information um for your business and whether it’s you know whether it’s how to properly maintain a piece of equipment like that’s just not something you see out there you know without sending your guys you know to a facility or having them you know that’s right so I know one of the cool things cinebogen does is they bring you they’ll fly you you fly to North Carolina they’ll put you through the class on how to do everything well that that takes real time real money to fly somebody there they come with the cost while you’re there whatever else but this is kind of a quick hitter we can get some Mobile Share maintenance some material handler maintenance some Baylor maintenance some I mean all those in one to be able to soak all that in for you know in two days I mean find me find me a

better um use of time for your maintenance your mechanical team whoever else that you think could use do you know just a good overview of you know all you need is one thing I tell people all the time you just pick up one takeaway one that’s right here and it pays for the trip right and and we’ve added a magnet maintenance to this year’s uh lineup right so so there’s magnet maintenance as well right so that again that kind of brass tax you know it’s it’s really about those practical takeaways that you can use day to day to make your business better and stronger right that’s that’s what scrapbook Expos really really focused on right 100 I’m excited about the session that you’re gonna um put together two on let’s grow your business right how do you how do you drive growth in your business and it’s not just hey I’m a huge company and I’m going out and buying companies but it’s it’s practical stuff about ways you could take a small business and make it better faster stronger for the future to continue growing your business yeah yeah I’m stoked about that

and part of my deal was I don’t like I just mentioned before I want to follow along with the theme that you’ve created is I don’t want one-on-one class I want a 300 400 level class people that give you real tactical information of hey nobody likes the price of scrap today not compared to say a year or two ago um but guess what like sometimes the price of scrap comes down the cost of operating go up and it creates real opportunity in these markets right and if you want to grow your business you gotta wait and look and understand what those opportunities um that are being presented what they look like so that you can figure out a way to attack and I think that’s the lineup that we put together and we’ll talk more about that down the road is p people that have done it that have lived it and also found ways to grow their business and most of the time these people aren’t grown when the markets are real hot they’re growing when the Market’s tough and challenging and and I think that’s that’s what what I’m excited

to talk about um because so many people in our industry that have done it that have executed and that are so willing to tell you how they did it and what’s what what’s so true about what you’re sharing is the fact that a lot of that happens not in the best of markets but yeah some of the most challenging markets right and so understand that understanding how you can make that happen for your business I think is going to be one of the great takeaways from scrap Expo 2023 there’s so much so much of that so much of that that I’m excited about and I always tell people this too like I don’t sell I don’t believe in and I neither should you like if you’re in a job selling something that you don’t you don’t believe is is worth the money then you better find something else because that’s not a good that’s not a good gig to be and you’ll be miserable I genuinely sell that I believe in and talk about stuff that I really believe has an impact and that’s probably the reason why I’m excited about this conference I’m

happy that you had the nuds to put it on I mean in the face of a lot of naysayers right A lot of people that didn’t think you could get it done um I mean last year it kind of coincided with uh the Commodities Roundtable up in Chicago right or no yeah and that was hugely unfortunate and thankfully this year that’s not the case and that’s that’s why I want to bring that up is this year that uh that doesn’t those two dates don’t don’t Collide so I think timing wise it’s a really good opportunity to to to it kind of fits in that that window of you know most of your maintenance guys most of your yard operators you know your your boots on the ground um to go and attend Commodities Roundtable or even a consumer’s night I mean those events have their place just like the National Convention has its place for history where you’re getting people from all over the the world coming in guys are broken and doing doing deals with all year long that you might not see that don’t live here or they live you know on

the other side of the country or whatever whatever that it has a real place in our industry and this event I feel like carves out a real niche in our industry for your domestic operators and then you get operators from other countries that want to come in and see how we’re doing it because all they need is one takeaway and they can take it back to their country to their operations and you know implement it and it it becomes worth the cost but it’s a it’s a I wouldn’t say it’s a it’s a niche conference like your battery conference this is a it has a real placeholder in the industry if you’re if you’re a true true blue operator of your company and you’re in your even if you’re part of a larger company but you have a real stake in how you know how successful it is yeah listen Brett last year we had attendees from 39 States 10 different countries wow right so we had a very diverse attendee base but they were definitely all operators right we had hundreds of tons of scrap on the ground so people could literally you

know cut scrap pick up scrap strip cable you know see cars being depolluted it was live operating experience and so that’s a fundamental difference than than anything else you can you can experience and listen we are um we’re members of Israeli were active at the chapter level we’re active at the national level we’re big supporters yeah of what they do think that their mission is is vitally important to the industry um there are other ways the industry can benefit too though it doesn’t always have to happen in the context of only an Israeli meeting and um and scratch scrap Expo is one of those opportunities right just like in the paper and Plastics World our paper and Plastics recycling conference is it is a event that people can participate in to learn grow Network and so forth so we what we’ve created in scrap Expo is really something designed for scrap dealers one thing I’m going to tell you that was very interesting is we had small and large companies alike a 10 last year we had some of the biggest companies in the industry sending yard managers operations managers people who were responsible

for equipment purchasing um because they were able to do it quickly and efficiently and see a lot of machinery and something we didn’t hit on but you know this year the indoor exhibits uh we’ve got almost 20 percent it’s closer to 30 percent more Booth space on the inside exhibits than we had last year so that’s also going to be hugely more informative for people well it’s just it’s an attribute it’s an attribution to the tributes to the success of the original you know show you guys did last year the first one and I believe and I’ve I’ve kind of preached this on multiple levels that we’ve kind of moved into a world more of and than or and when you mention isary and you talk about what they bring to table and the importance of of them to our industry I believe in the same way right I believe that Israeli has its place in our industry as advocates for our industry as you know there they should be on a uh lobbyist beneficial level for uh for us like trying to allow us to to operate our our business right um from

a regulatory standpoint as well and then also from a large um you know basically a way to group and network a of the world really like that’s kind of it’s It’s role right and then you also have these these uh events like scrap Expo where his goal is to network you know your operators of the world together so it’s like you’re you know your your head your head mechanics your head you know facility operators whether you’re from Brazil or you’re from the United States or you’re from Kentucky or you’re from New York or from Idaho so you have like these these events and it truly is an ant you know you know it’s it’s it’s going to be a different crowd than goes to you you know consumers night um in Chicago I’m sorry but then you have at scrap Expo right I think and that’s the way it should be if you’re doing it right then you’re finding your Niche and I look at it the same way as a smaller medium-sized operator you can’t beat everything to everyone all the time you got to find your niche in your area in

your state in your geography and be damn good at that Niche and just attack it hard that’s really how you build a business is you can’t be the best copper the best steel Ferris the best aluminum processor and do it all like but especially if you’re a small operator you’re just not going to be able to eat you got to find that one thing that’s like your Niche that you can really go hard at and then slowly expand out from there as you grow and you gain opportunity and awareness right and I feel like that’s kind of what you’re doing with this and if if I’m wrong that’s fine this is my my take on it listen and you’re going to build that Niche out we had talked um before we started recording about you know just the nature of the business is it’s hard on Machinery right it’s not about we’re not a good operator or any it it’s the nature of the business is very hard on machinery and so understanding how you can better maintain that equipment how you can um get a longer Life High stronger performance faster cycle times

all those things are vitally important to everyone’s operation whether they’re small or large and scrap X was all about that kind of stuff right and the other truth is that you know because it is what it is Scrap Processing Machinery is expensive right it’s not getting any cheaper either if it is expensive um and part of the reason is it’s built in a very robust manner right I mean there are certain table Stakes you got to have to be at the table and so having your team understand how they can again lower your Opex lower your Capital costs by extending the life of your Machinery knowing how to take care of it um when something happens you know all those things are vital to to being a good operator and also to being able to ship in any market right nobody wants downtime preventing you from shipping and uh and so you know again scrap Expos really designed to help people understand the equipment side of the business but also we’ve got some good you know um commodity Market insights as well last year we did red metals we’re not going to do that

this year this year we’re taking on aluminum right we’ll cover Ferris of course as well always have to cover Ferris but um but we’ll live in a really great aluminum session for for folks as well get some insight as to what’s going on in that space yeah and and over and above the commodity side it’s it is it’s a it’s a true flu networking event as well and I think that that’s that that’s probably one of the things that it has in common with an Israeli National event right or or a consumer not a type of event it’s that networking component right and if I if I’ve got a maintenance supervisor I want him to go and network with other maintenance supervisors because maybe they can share a little bit of knowledge with each other right or if I’ve got um an operator that runs one of my yards and I want him to go for her to go because I want them to network with say other operators that are running around a facility and let them exchange some ideas and some phone numbers and have those conversations so that’s probably the biggest

thing it has in common is the networking component where the network don’t forget don’t forget scrap Expos of blue jeans and work boots show yeah yeah but the niche that it fits within our industry that’s important is it doesn’t Leave Out All the Small medium-sized operators that are cutting their time for the industry that are that have real businesses or they’re building real businesses they’re trying to grow they’re trying to do and that’s where I felt like that Niche got gets fulfilled I can go to isary and have a bunch of good conversations I’d sell all the material and that’s a good event for me like I I do enjoy the the Israel national Convention now if I want to have some of my operators and some of my some of those guys go to a convention they’re not going to maybe get as much out of that but they will get a lot out of this one right and so that’s where it’s like it’s in a we live in a world of Ann not org and the reason why I like pushing this one is because it’s it’s just because I

have my own selfishness like it’s my people right it’s the it’s the guys and guys are like me out there just kind of hustling it up every day trying to trying to make a living yeah yeah and listen we had operators come from a lot of different types of companies it was definitely we had a lot of um a lot of scrap companies that was the vast majority of our attendee base right but we had Auto Wreckers there we had some consumers there we had a few exporters and importers we had some Mill service companies yeah um we had the one that really surprised me was you know we actually had some waste companies we had some demolition guys attend and you know again they’re all used equipment they’re all maintaining equipment they’re all to some degree processing handling some level of scrap metal and so they found the event to be you know really worthwhile for them as well I love it well give me the dates man anything else any uh any parting shots you want to to speak over I think you gotta you got it covered so again I’m just

going to share with everybody that we’re going to be September 12th and 13th that’s a Tuesday and Wednesday so in the middle of the week in the middle of the month that’s important um and will be Tuesday from 10 to 6 and Wednesday from nine to four so good long days for everybody to network you can learn everything you want to know about the event at scrapexpo.net scrap Expo scrapexpo.net and we’ll be posting some more stuff uh yeah we’ll be posting some more stuff up on social so follow along I’m kind of talking about the sessions talking about the speakers and just in general looking forward to uh connecting with some people there we’re gonna do some live podcasts I mean it’s gonna be like I said it’s it’s the operator’s show man that’s that’s what I love about it and I and I and I can’t appreciate or say thank you enough Jim for finding us and finding that Niche and putting it on you and your team and and just I appreciate your opportunity to do it we appreciate your support and and the support of everyone who stepped up

and helped the event happen and and uh so it’s been great it’s going to be a it’s going to be a great one man so thanks again and uh go check it out scrap expo.net and uh and don’t hesitate to reach out to me Jim whoever if you have any questions and uh connecting out there we’re looking forward to it Louisville Brett thanks absolutely you will