welcome to bets on the future where we highlight the various career paths and the electrifying Metals World from the vehicle you ride in to the bridge holding it up metals are everywhere why not in your career too I’m Jennifer Betts a Metals industry veteran with almost 20 years experience here to highlight these incredible career paths As Told by the women who are living them on this week’s episode of bets on the future Deanne Toto joins us from Ohio as she shares her history growing up in a steel making family to today’s Journey covering the metals and Beyond Recycling Industries join me as we discuss her experiences working for gie media and recycling today magazine covering some of the most unique Recycling and sustainable stories Deanne I’m very excited to have you on the podcast today this is another Avenue that most people don’t really think about when they’re thinking about careers about medals about Recycling and you’ve been doing it two decades plus yes half decades a little bit more than that yes 26 years wow that’s fantastic congratulations and a lot of that I I believe from our initial conversation was at or

is at the same company that you’re at today correct yes all of it at gie media wow that’s um that’s impressive you’re a unicorn to today’s job market candidates out there it it has to mean that you like what you do that you like the company that you’re working for for those people that are unfamiliar with who you are do you mind just giving a quick background name title who you are basically so I am Deanne Toto I am the editorial director of the recycling today Media Group and our Flagship publication uh which most people in the uh scrap recycling industry would be aware of is recycling today at his published for over 60 years and uh yeah long time and we produce additional Publications uh called waste today that is our newest that serves the Environmental Services industry more broadly and construction and demolition recycling so uh just as the name implies construction and demolition uh debris processors and demolition contractors I have to imagine when you got the job opportunity or you were reached out about this opportunity you probably didn’t have a lot of you know experience in in this realm

I mean I think most people just assume Metals Recycling you know it’s the blue bin at the end of the driveway um and now you’re you’re discussing you know construction demolition um cycling in an industrial setting I it it had to have piqued your interest like what was that spark what was that moment when you’re like oh I’m in this I’m in this for for the Long Haul so I wasn’t uh completely um uh out of touch with the recycling industry particularly the Metal’s end my parents actually both worked for a steel mill oh wow okay uh in the the Warren Ohio area uh my dad was a motor inspector and my mom worked in the purchasing department and so you know we would often go pick up Mom for lunch so I was in you know I was in the steel mill but not in the steel mill shop the Rolling Mill yeah certainly little kids weren’t going to be out that way but um I was uh you know in the purchasing department office and then she went uh and worked in the engineering department so I was in there and then

in the summer you know they would extend uh the offer to employees uh for their kids to work in the steel mills so I worked as a slab Checker um I worked in the the railroad office checking in the the trains as they came in I was spotting bins in that kind of stuff too wow so um yeah I wasn’t completely out of touch with it so I’m still I’m stealing an idea from another podcast where essentially when we start using industry terms that may not be completely widespread public knowledge um I’m going to be referencing my husband Esten that is in the biomedical field we have completely different careers so if you could when you’re talking about slab checking would you mind explaining it to my husband Austin in this situation you know for the broader scale yeah so oh my God this was over like 26 years ago so I’ll have to see if I even remember so we got um clipboards that had printouts on them and we were out in the the yard in the sun um with hot slabs of Steel there and we had to write yeah yeah

yeah we had to write on them with a you know a big crayon type thing um and confirm like yes this lab is this number this it uh that is the the best that I can recall oh what that job entailed that’s that’s amazing just think of uh as as you said they’re hot they’re fresh I mean it takes a while for you know slabs that were once at 2 000 you know ish degrees to cool down and you’re out there walking amongst them in the summer heat yeah I’m somewhat shocked that you’re you’re still in this industry after that intro um that’s that’s incredible so how did you I mean how did you go from you know having at least some knowledge of the industry to you know what what kind of education what what moved you into what you’re doing today like how did you get there uh with a lot of conversations from very generous people who you know shared their expertise their time their Insight uh you know and you’re always learning so I’m still learning even now all these many years later you know as things evolve and change

you you’ve got to evolve and change and you need uh new sources of info and new contacts and uh so yes relationships very important I know what I know because people are kind enough to talk with me and make time in their day and also you know uh I believe you’re familiar with my boss Jim Keith the publisher of uh recycling today he is a font of knowledge as well so uh you know I have gotten numerous brain dumps from Jim uh yes he’s a fantastic person to know from a networking standpoint from a knowledge standpoint that’s what’s wonderful about our industry is that that knowledge transfer that there are many Jim Keith’s in our industry that pass down the information that pass on the knowledge that go out of their way to make that introduction for you because okay yes you could go to school for Metallurgy okay you get the basis but generally speaking most people in this industry they have to learn on the job right yes yes that’s what we all do right even even in the journalism end of it you can go and read the textbook to have

the discussions take the quizzes but until you’re actually doing it day to day you really have no idea what your in for and what challenges are going to arise uh no no uh and I imagine since you do on-site interviews sometimes you’ve probably seen some really interesting things over the year is there one or two in particular that just kind of struck you as fascinating or interesting that you want to share uh so I have a couple timely things um as you may have heard you know Grant Milliron recently died and we went and visited his yard in 2018 and I was just so impressed by his passion his uh his kindness he was so willing to take time and explain everything to us and his pride for what he did um and you know he was a Hands-On operator he was in that yard every day and um so you know he he knew all the numbers of his business uh he knew it inside it out um so that impressed me and then recently we were at gershow recycling and just seeing what they’ve done with their uh non-ferrous

Metals recovery plant and the Investments that they’re making in their business and you know it’s not a name that’s on the tip of everybody’s tongue but they are doing really great thanks yes the industry that you’re discussing is essentially a scrap metal recycled materials you reference the non-ferrous metal recovery system uh for Essen that is essentially what happened after the material gets shredded in an auto Shredder the magnets pull out the the fairest part the Steel part I’m very much glossing over some this is The Abridged version yes it’s very much the average version but the non-ferrous recovery systems are fascinating today because non-ferrous covers a wide range of metals aluminum copper stainless if you want to if you want to call certain stainless non-ferrous in that world and they’re all little parts of copper wires pipes like little pieces of aluminum cast things like that and it’s all jumbled together it’s a imagine if you took like 20 different types of cereal and you mixed it together and then essentially you had to say yeah now sort them out yeah and that’s what these turn them to their original

products yeah so that we can knock them down and reuse them again and so the the systems are fascinating and they are not cheap they are very expensive Millions upon millions of dollars um but it’s incredible to see those companies like gershow installing those and seeing the the business benefit of it yes yes and man those are also you know the the gershows the gershowitz I should say man they are in tune with their business they are measuring every pound that’s coming through their plan um it is you know it is an amazing thing to witness it absolutely is you mentioned Grant Mill Iron uh I had the incredible Fortune of being able to to visit his yard and he drove me around like when I’m when I met him he by many other industry standards probably should have been on an island somewhere relaxing enjoying um retirement and nope nope he was going to be there every single day when I showed up he wanted to give me a tour of the yard so he’s like get in the truck let’s go and he showed me around and it was impressive I also

have to say probably one of the best names in the industry I mean he he’s from uh Mansfield Ohio correct yes right so Mansfield Ohio is a steel Town um AK Steel now Cleveland Cliffs has um sdml there and his last name is literally Mill Iron Mill Iron I mean not I could not have made that up it was too perfect and there’s good names in the industry like that yeah he was born to go into Metals Recycling uh yes yes very much so I feel like he could not go into any other field he had to do that and he was very good very good at it he was took a lot of calculated risks to see like to tell me absolutely what are you working on these days because I know a few things that you and your company are working on but is there anything in particular that you’re excited about that’s coming up oh well we’ve got our scrap Expo as you are well aware of that is coming up that’s our set our second year for the event you will be speaking there um which I’m very much looking

forward to um we’re gonna have a session on women in the industry and how we may be very well an untapped resource uh especially these days when hiring is so much more challenging um and and we’re gonna going to have another session on the vertical integration of the industry where we have a lot of Heavy Hitters in the ferris sector speaking during that so um I’m also very excited well I say Danny Rifkin he was a big name in the Pharaoh and but now he’s in the illuminum section uh yes and I’ve alluded to um the rifkins on a previous episode before but that’s another good example of you know he should have been on an island somewhere and he’s like nope I’m gonna take my pay out and I’m gonna turn around and do it again do it again you know many people tell me as I’m interviewing them uh for profiles that this industry just gets into your blood and there are certainly you know Danny ricken Grant Milliron uh the gershowitz certainly examples of people who yes this industry is in their blood and they are not going anywhere no not

at all um I’ve interviewed a few individuals on this podcast where they’ve started off maybe in a different industry come over here and then thought you know maybe the metals in the industry isn’t for me and then they went you know outside and you know four months later they’re back right uh this this was supposed to be like a six month I’ll see how it goes for me I’m still here yeah so what brings you back what brought you back I should say Hey you know I didn’t know what I was getting into I was very naive um I took a job out of college for the David J Joseph company now new course deal and they’re like here’s a company car here’s you know expense account go travel I’m like yeah okay I’ll try this and then once I started meeting the individuals then meeting the individuals like Grant Mill iron or Pat Hill who is now retired um there’s some very interesting folks that are in the industry and then the things that I’ve seen just kind of hooked me that the everyday person don’t they don’t see what we do like

I we I you know I think we did a decent job of describing what a non-ferrous metal recovery plan is but until you see it in action until you see an aluminum smelter until you see an electric Arc furnace actually charge Steel you you can’t really explain it well so I I’m sure that’s very similar as to why you’re still in this because you’ve seen some incredible things over the years yeah and there’s like I said earlier there’s just so much to learn you you never are done learning this industry and you know we’re not we don’t just exclusive oh my goodness Tongue Tied exclusively cover the metals end of things were also involved in paper Plastics um municipals so yeah I if I get bored with one subject I just need to turn my attention elsewhere until you know I’m something new happens in that area and I’m back um so it’s yeah just the variety of things we get to cover even in the metal space there’s so much stuff going on in each of the the different segments that yeah I say if I get bored but I really don’t

ever get bored it’s more like okay I have to shift over here now because this needs to get done but uh but yeah I don’t care there is a variety of topics that you can cover and what you do and I’m curious how have you seen those topics evolved over the years especially as it relates to the marketing of sustainability and the marketing of recycling I’m sure you’re probably getting some more inquiries from sources outside of our industry recently um well you know decarbonization really wasn’t a word that many people used until the last couple of years people used scrap or recycled materials because it was the less expensive raw material option um not because of the environmental benefits or the ESG benefits the environmental um social and government governance you know aspect of it which is becoming much more important for a lot of companies like their their if they want especially public companies that they want to keep their investors happy they need to be considering these things and like the whole use of hydrogen to to how are these processes like I haven’t heard so much about that being talked and

like really like trials happening like that are publicized widely until that just this past year or so it seems um so that’s all you know very exciting and yeah just uh sustainability circularity all of those words just in the last three years have become you know more commonplace you know we were talking about them maybe in the recycling space but now you’re hearing consumer uh package of goods companies um Autumn otta makers you know all of them speaking that language so that’s very exciting which is kind of interesting considering a vehicle has a high percentage of recycled materials already in it yes for decades yes they’re been in there yeah and the lead acid battery is what 99 recycling um right so uh yeah EV batteries will need to get with the program uh yes that’s a that’s a that’s a whole other episode that’s a whole other podcast series hey is that a business opportunity for gie media maybe maybe the um coverage of that aspect of it well um I don’t know if you’re aware but we hosted our first battery in critical Metals Recycling conference yes um this past June so

we’ve certainly uh covered the topic in the magazine but I think we can do a lot more and uh our first event was uh you know we were very pleased with the attendance we were very pleased with the feedback um so we’re looking forward to planning next year’s event and I think we’re sticking in that June time frame as well um same location same location yes okay it was Atlanta at um a western property in Buckhead okay oh I like that I like that area many people probably you know the EV battery not to touch too much of a um lightning rod uh it’s a little uh divisive on some folks but they’re made of metals right so when we talk about battery scientists about EVS about um just the electrification right a lot of individuals are looking at that as a career choice and yet they’re not really realizing they’re talking about Metals they’re talking about a commodity they’re talking about something that has been recycled previously in the lead battery space right all of the other metals that make it up have been recycled in their own rights and now there’s this

creative opportunity from a career and professional standpoint to actually be able to do this professionally right yes yeah on a large scale yes yes I mean I’m I’m guilty of it I do have an electric vehicle and uh I did it for a variety of reasons including I know that it’s manufactured and made from domestic sources of recycled materials and it never occurred to me what happened what would happen if I got into an accident a regular ice vehicle right I know the whole supply chain I know the arm Cutters in my area I know where it would go I know where it would probably wind up and what Melt Shop right and where it would eventually go down to a new washer and dryer new car whatever but the EV battery part that is the huge question mark at this point yes hear you are working on that and and trying to connect the industries and all the different points together in those conferences yes that is the objective of that event to bring you know everybody to the the table to have those conversations because they’re not all necessarily talking to another

which is hard to believe the right hand is not talking to the left hand I I’ve uh recently discovered that the folks that are designing and producing creating these batteries are not talking well they are I think some of them are these days but originally we’re not talking to end of life recyclers on how to handle them safely right they weren’t designing them with end of life in mind because they do they do last quite a while like I will you know they will be on the road quite a while but that needs to be discussed and figured out prior to the next coming out and accidents happen so you know they might find their way to a automobile recycling operation sooner than later because of that you know and some people just don’t know the first thing uh of what to do with them no no not at all well I would say in general people when their cars are in accidents you know it’s not something that everyone is familiar with right usually it’s you call the insurance the auto body shop comes and picks it up they give you an estimate

what you don’t see behind the scenes is that the auto body shop is now taking your scrap metal from that vehicle and they are taking it to this local scrap yard the local recycled materials facility right and they’re getting paid for that amount as well as you are being charged for their services and so that’s always been happening but now how do you do it with the EV batteries because those are a little bit tougher to deal with yes and potentially more dangerous uh especially if they’ve been damaged in an accident yes yes safety wise it is um a bit challenging yes you’ve been in the industry for two and a half decades why are you still here like what is your how has your why changed from the beginning to today um well I’m not sure it’s changed that much you know the people are great in this industry so that’s why I want to continue to cover it but you know the also the environmental impact of what our readers do every day is you know such a valuable contribution and it’s great to be able to share their stories with people

um now we’re a you know B2B magazine business to business magazine so when I’m writing uh about a company it’s with other companies in mind but you know every now and then a consumer uh an average Joe May stumble upon an article and get a better understanding of what this industry is and I think that’s important because this industry has not always done a great job of telling people a story and um you know lots of misconceptions occur because people have insisted on staying under the radar and I I would just encourage everybody out there if you are running a recycling operation don’t hide from the publicity go tell your story be proud of what you do um and the contribution you make not just in terms of the environmental contribution but the employment contribution and you know the the tax uh contributions you’re making is a company that are helping to fund things in your community um it’s all so important and uh you know they say there’s no such thing as bad press and uh I know that some people would not agree with that but you know if you can get

out there tell a positive story about my earbuds don’t want to stay in today if you can get out there and tell a positive story about your company and the industry that you represent that is only going to benefit the industry your community your business and ultimately our environment so don’t be shy uh absolutely and as a self-interest plug call me uh if you’re one of those uh metal recycling facilities I can help with that that you hit it on on the head we’ve always been under the radar the metals industry is one of those careers that people fall into or they have a family or friend Connection people do not seek it out that needs to change because we are the perfect combination of jobs economy tax contribution and also an environmental sustainability circular economy like we cover both of those into a career that’s lifelong that you can cover you you can be in the reporting publication side of things you can be in commercial manufacturing there’s so many different facets to this industry that people just are not even aware of exist yes we only can attract the good talent

if we make ourselves invisible uh yes and again there’s so many do and it’s do you know how hard it is for me to find videos online of what I’ve seen in person and of course at the time you know from a safety standpoint I’m not going around a steel mill or in a little smelter with my camera out right um I’m looking at all the safety hazards to to make sure that like I’m as safe as possible and I’m following my my guide right where are those videos where yeah where where’s the video of the non-ferrous metal recovery plan that’s like you know flinging from the 400 like air Puffs and the ice rays and the you know the very cool technology that exists where are the videos of that that show we need to get some drones in there so we can do it safely and yes yes I might have a person for you on that I I might have a connection on on a drone company that has some good medals experience I mean I think that’s really great advice is there any advice for individuals that you would

give to get into this industry um be curious be humble uh you know um be persistent be tough um I think I think that would about sum it up I think that’s really great advice but definitely something that resonates with me something back to my career I you know I feel like we could probably keep talking um at this point uh I will see you in Louisville uh in September for uh scrap Expo I believe this is probably going to come out a little bit before that so you know spoiler alert we’re recording this not the week before subscribe Expo so we give our editorial team some chance to you know um edit it but I’m really looking forward to seeing you in person to catching up um and uh I’m I’m looking forward to the scrap Expo yes it should be even bigger and better than last year I dare say I and and I was unfortunately unable to go last year so I’m I’m I I can’t wait I heard some really great positive things out of last year’s conference yeah we were completely pleased with the the turnout and the feedback

that we got and we just wanna you know make it that much better this year and I think we’re on our way to do I think you are I think you are uh for anybody that is interested in um reaching out to you you’re on LinkedIn um you can find Dan on um you know gie media’s sites she is a huge talent in our industry very knowledgeable great to connect so I’m I’m very honored that you were able to hop on today and and have a quick conversation about our incredible industry well I thank you for asking me to join you and I appreciate um that uh that you are supporting uh what we’re doing at scrap Expo and uh I’m glad to have the opportunity to chat with more women in the industry who are out there rolling their sleeves up every day absolutely there’s more than the that what may appear to the eye but we’re out there and we’re hurting more yes yeah who knows we might have even more after this session yes I mean fingers crossed that’s the intent like let’s get more people interested in what we do

let’s raise our profile and let people know the good work that this industry does yes very well said Thank you again Deanna it was it was really wonderful thank you I appreciate this time