Upstate Shredding-Ben Weitsman to Build Wire Chopping Plant

Upstate Shredding-Ben Weitsman has announced plans to build a wire chopping facility in Owego, N.Y. The $6 million facility will feature a wire chopping plant installed by the Wendt Corp., Tonawanda, N.Y., and purchased from MTB Recycling of Trept, France. The company also will be building a 100,000-square-foot nonferrous warehouse to handle the flow of nonferrous material into Owego.

“With this investment, we will be able to increase our profits and further process more valuable materials from the automobiles and other insulated wires we are currently selling to others,” says Adam Weitsman, owner of Upstate Shredding-Ben Weitsman.

By purchasing the MTB chopping line, Upstate Shredding -Ben Weitsman says it has positioned itself to refine lower-grade insulated wiring from the shredding process and all other grades of insulated wire. The plant will process copper, aluminum and lead coated wire from Upstate Shredding and Ben Weitsman feeder yards. The company also will purchase insulated copper and aluminum, aluminum copper radiators and lead coated wire on the open market from dealers throughout the Northeast and Canada. In addition, the company will purchase insulated wire from other shredders.

“This will put North America back in play again,” says Tom Wendt. “This is an upgrade that allows for significantly increased domestic sale, not just for export. This is the only proven and premium solution for recovering wire from shredder residue.”

He adds the new Upstate Shredding-Ben Weitsman line will have the highest volume capability offered in a wire chopping plant by MTB.

The four-stage process for an MTB chopping line is fully automated and is capable of separating the various components of the cable to pure metal – between 99.7 percent and 100 percent pure aluminum and 98 percent to 99.9 percent pure copper. The four components in the wire chopper include a pre-chopping process, where raw feedstock of wire and cables are fed into a system that shreds or chops wires into consistent lengths; a granulator, where material from the pre-chopper is stripped of insulation; a separation system that divides recyclable metals from insulation materials, and, in the fourth step, materials are sorted and loaded into containers for resale.  

Upstate Shredding-Ben Weitsman, headquartered in Owego, owns and operates 11 scrap metal collection and processing facilities in New York and Pennsylvania. Additionally, the company is set to open a scrap metal recycling center and export facility in Albany, N.Y.