While Chrysler and GM decide how to cope with production woes, Tom Malone is at the other end of the metallic food chain: deconstructing cars and trucks, separating out metals, fuels, batteries, glass and plastic that once dazzled customers in the showroom and then reselling recycled materials for productive re-use.
Brookfield Resource Management Inc., based in Elmsford since the 1980s and where Malone has been president since 2006, is expanding both in Westchester and, in a big way, into Orange County.
The company is a repository for ELVs (end-of-life) vehicles and other scrap metals that have outlived their usefulness. When Malone”™s father and uncle wanted to retire, they turned to their children and asked them to take over what was and continues to be a successful business. “It wasn”™t exactly what I had planned,” said Malone, who spent a decade in the financial industry before returning to the family business, “but I”™m enjoying it.”
While dismantling vehicles and dealing in scrap metal may not be the business some envision as the ideal business next door, Malone said Brookfield takes every opportunity to be a positive community partner. “We know ours is not a legacy company,” said Malone. “That”™s why it”™s so important to have good relations with your neighbors.”
Currently, Brookfield is in the process of spending $3.5 million to upgrade its Westchester facility, bringing much of its recycling into a new, enclosed addition.
Every growing company needs room and Brookfield is no exception. In Orange County, the town of Wawayanda”™s accessibility to three major interstates and availability of industrial acreage made it attractive for Brookfield, which is planning an approximately 70,000-square-foot, $15 million plant on Dolsontown Road; its nearest neighbors will be Middletown”™s wastewater treatment plant and an Orange & Rockland utility substation.
Still, some homeowners living near the industrially zoned area filed an Article 78 in Orange County Supreme Court to block the building. The case was dismissed in February. “It was another hurdle,” said Malone. “They wondered why we bought 48 acres of land when we will only plan to use 18 for the recycling campus. The question”™s not hard to answer: We want to put as much space between us and anyone nearby. Berms and other natural landscaping will keep the area green and the plant out of sight, but give us the proximity to the major roads we need.”
Currently, Brookfield is in the permitting process with the town, and Malone hopes the company will be able to break ground this year.
Automobiles and commercial vehicles are a major component of Brookfield”™s business. “There are 12 million vehicles that reach the end of their useful life each year,” said Malone.
Malone said the savings of using recycled material to both the consumer and to the environment can”™t be beat. “Recycling steel that is already out of the ground ”“ and 75 percent of a vehicle is made out of steel ”“ is going to send it back to the steel mill to make more cars. It makes a lot more sense to use what”™s already out of the ground than to start digging for more. In a way, we”™re a kind of a mining business; but rather than extracting from the ground, we”™re taking from goods already produced.”
Malone said those in his industry that still use the same operating practices in place 30 years ago are going to find themselves regulated out of business in today”™s economic and ecological climate. “You need to run a modern facility with innovative, best-management practices. A lot of people talk about ”˜sustainable living”™ and ”˜green technology,”™ but the fact is, we live it every day.” The business is much more labor intensive than in years past, and state regulations are stringent.
The Dolsontown Avenue plant will eventually recycle more than 100 tons of metal six days a week and employ more than 50 people. Vertical Ltd. of Monroe is overseeing the project for Brookfield. Maureen Halahan, president of the Orange County Partnership, is “pleased Brookfield has chosen to locate its world-class recycling facility here. By providing good paying jobs and increasing the tax base, this business will provide the type of economic stimulus the region needs.” OCP projects a total investment of $26 million or more into the local economy as a result of Brookfield”™s entry into the county.
