Alter Trading Purchases Iowa Scrap Yards

Alter Trading Corp. purchased the real estate and operating assets of Recycling Industries of Iowa, Inc. and Weissman Industries from assignee for the benefit of Recycling Industries’ creditors.

Alter hopes to reopen the operations at the Weissman yard this week. The sale continues the sell off of various scrap yards acquired by Recycling Industries. The company was one of the three large consolidators that swept the recycling industry during the mid 1990s. However, after these companies amassed facilities throughout the United States, all three of the companies saw their fortunes collapse. Unlike Phillip Services and Metal Management, Recycling Industries ended up closing down altogether. Over the past year many of the idled scrap yards have been snapped up by independent scrap operations.

RII purchased the Weissman operations in August 1996 and operated the facility until the company filed for bankruptcy protection Feb. 1999.

According to Robert Goldstein, President of Alter Trading, “we are extremely pleased to own the former Weissman facility.  This facility fits extremely well with our other locations and will allow us to better serve our customers.”

Alter Trading, headquartered in St. Louis, is one of the largest scrap processors in the Midwest. The company has has scrap metal processing operations in Council Bluffs, Davenport, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Des Moines and Burlington, Iowa; Lincoln, Norfolk and Grand Island, Nebraska; Quincy and Peoria, Illinois; LaCrosse, Wisconsin; and St. Paul, Minnesota in addition to the two Waterloo sites.