Potomac Metals to open new facility

The scrap metal recycling company Potomac Metals,  headquartered in Sterling, Virginia, has broken ground on a new facility in Ashburn, Virginia. The new facility, expected to be operational by the first half of next year, will include a 65,000-square foot building and a 3,000-square foot mezzanine that will serve the company’s office needs, Potomac Metals says. The facility also will have a customized warehousing component that will allow the company’s operations to be streamlined and will provide room for further growth.

 

Potomac Metals is primarily a nonferrous scrap metal recycling company with seven locations in the mid-Atlantic region. The company presently has four locations in Virginia, two in Maryland and one in West Virginia. One of the company’s facilities is dedicated to handle obsolete electronics.

 

Mark Zwilsky, owner of Potomac Metals, says that while the company handles some ferrous scrap, it focuses much of its efforts on collecting, processing and brokering nonferrous metals. He estimates the company handles between 3 to 3.5 million pounds of nonferrous scrap per month.

 

Construction of the building will be led by Merritt Construction Services, a Baltimore-based construction firm. Groundbreaking for the facility began in late October.

 

The new facility will feature a heavy-duty two-ram baler equipped with two 100-horsepower motors for processing scrap metal, two full-size truck scales, multiple ground buy/sell scale platforms linked to Potomac Metals’ scale data software and an electric material handler that generates zero emissions.

 

Potomac adds that the new corporate headquarters will give the company the opportunity to expand its retail, brokerage and processing divisions by a projected total staff increase of 15 percent. In addition, the facility’s design and centralized location to Potomac’s other recycling facilities and current customer base will maximize convenience for their retail, commercial and industrial accounts.

 

“Our company researched and interviewed several contractors to build our new facility, but after having the opportunity to tour current and previous Merritt construction projects and meeting the management team in Virginia—our choice to go with Merritt proved to be easy,” says Zwilsky.