Alco Iron & Metal Company

Another differentiating factor has been Alco’s abil- ity to spot the changing trends in the recycling business and then making the right corresponding business decisions to stay ahead of the curve. For example, over the last fewyears, China has reduced its acceptance of a lot of America’s low-grade items. “Four or five years ago,we would be sending two or three containers a day of what we call ‘break- age,’” says Bercovich,“low-grade items,mostly steel, copper wiring, aluminum cases, that sort of thing. In addition to breakage, another item that became more difficult to export was insulated wire.We saw this coming and made an investment in a chopping line in order to process this wire.That’s been a real exciting project for us and we’re the only one doing it on a large scale in California, for this past year.”