“No, we don’t take (insert name of large appliance here),” I tell a curious recycler or two every month it seems. The catch is to offer a local alternative for an old stove or pickup bed stacked with bent steel siding, other than the landfill.
Since January, I, like any other observant passerby, have been seeing an excavator working methodically behind the former Alliance Wrecking and Salvage Co. fence just west of the Third Street underpass. So, I began to tell people that may be an option soon. Two weeks ago, Western Nebraska Metals opened its doors and began buying scrap and nonferrous metal. The extreme winds brought the closed sign back for a day that week though things have been running smoothly since.
Mariah Brady, who was talking to customers in the office, told me about the new business before being joined by Jason Butler, who had been in the yard. The salvage company is waiting for a license from the State of Nebraska before they can accept automobiles. “Anything you need to get rid of, bring it up,” she encouraged.
Keep Alliance Beautiful does recycle metal. However, we mainly accept aluminum cans and bottles, which are nonferrous (without iron), and steel/tins cans, with smaller items such as clothes hangers. Televisions, part of our electronics collection, are the only really large items accepted.
Regardless of the source, metal remains a popular commodity to recycle with a fast turnaround. Mariah said that even after they are able to take cars and pickups, miscellaneous items ranging from batteries to radiators will make up most purchases. She explained they separate brass, copper and aluminum, which they take to market, from the iron-based scrap metal that goes by truck.
Perry Britsch, who operated Silverline Salvage in Hemingford, had the property for three years,
Mariah said. Jason said he had worked at Silverline and came to the Alliance venture with 11 years experience. He said everything goes to Denver then to the markets. Prices fluctuate, so Butler posts the current figures every Monday. When we talked, the price for iron was $190 a ton.
“I can’t think of anything I really don’t take,” Jason said. He will accept tires on aluminum wheels, which are worth the while, though refuses them on steel wheels. As a business, the new recycling station must pay landfill fees and is exempt from grant-funded tire collections. Furniture, etcetera, without metal content is also rejected.
It is exciting to welcome a business who recycles what may have been rusting in a crooked barn for years. There are others who recycle metal, such as old washers or dryers, in Alliance although it appears to be more between local companies than an outlet for the public.
The public continues to utilize our services at the recycling center from a broader territory. I hope residents take advantage of this salvage yard since the next closest is an hour’s drive to Scottsbluff.
“We have definitely gotten some community support,” Jason said. A challenge has been coming into town as a new face. Even so, word of mouth has been helpful with some people even asking for the latest metal prices while saying hi at the grocery store.
Jason has a third employee and hopes to hire someone else mid-summer. As far as what he likes about the business, “It is something different everyday, doesn’t get monotonous. (I) don’t know when somebody will come in with something you haven’t processed and (then you) figure out how to do it. . . . When people bring things in I try to help people process it better to make money – helps me too.”