Ben Ettleman—Recycling and Relating

Ben Ettleman’s success as a scrap recycler has been all about good relationships—with his employees, suppliers, consumers, and community.

By Si Wakesberg

Ben Ettleman, CEO of Davis Industries Inc. (Lorton, Va.), is a soft-spoken, modest man who has been active in the scrap industry for some six decades. He is one of those executives who works quietly behind the scenes but whose contributions and productive output over the years have been immeasurable. Though he may not seem to be your typical mover and shaker of industry, looks can be deceiving. As an example, when Ettleman first met his wife during World War II and told her he was a paratrooper, his soon-to-be father-in-law exclaimed: “No Jewish boy jumps out of a plane!” 

But Ettleman did jump out of planes, and after the war he became one of the executives who helped build the U.S. scrap industry into what it is today. Plus, as a leader in his Virginia community, he set a sterling example for other scrap executives to follow.

Recycling Roots

Ben Ettleman, who was born in the small Romanian town of Beltz, was seven years old when his family arrived in Alexandria, Va., in 1929. His father found a living as a peddler, collecting rags and metal. Starting when he was about 10, young Ben helped out in his father’s business, named Alexandria Junk Co., spending evenings and Saturdays working the scale—even after the family moved to Washington, D.C., in 1934.

By 1939, as he turned 18 and World War II began in Europe, Ettleman figured he would eventually go into the U.S. Army. First, though, he wanted “a little bit of independent living.” So he left his father’s scrap business and started working for an ice plant, manufacturing machinery that took a block of ice and crushed it or cut it up into cubes. Then, he spent 15 months working on the construction of the Pentagon, helping to install the air-conditioning system for the massive military office complex that was being built in Arlington, Va.

As he had expected, Ettleman entered the military in January 1943. Though he never saw combat, he was trained as a paratrooper with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, spent some of the war in Las Vegas, N.M., and went overseas to Auxerre, France. During his service, he met his future wife, Evelyn, while dating her roommate in Washington, D.C.—a fairly common wartime romantic triangle, he now jokes. They married in 1944.

After his discharge from the Army in February 1946, Ettleman returned home to once again work with his father. Within the year, he bought the family scrap business and took on a partner, Stanley Asrael. A forward-thinking recycler, Ettleman eventually dropped the word “junk” from the company’s name and thus helped run Alexandria Scrap Corp. until 1971, when he sold his interest to his partner. (Alexandria Scrap remained in business until 1988, he notes.) 

For three years, from 1971-1974, a noncompete clause with his former partner kept Ettleman out of the scrap industry. During that time, he volunteered with the Hebrew Home for the Aged in Bethesda, Md., and worked with a truck repair shop in Landover, Md. (Ettleman and his family—which included a son, Robert, and a daughter, Joyce—had moved to Silver Spring, Md., in 1950 and then to Bethesda a decade later.) 

When the noncompete period ended, Ettleman bought Davis Industries and modernized it over the years, adding the latest in scrap processing equipment. His improvements included installing a rail spur and bringing in a 1,000-ton Harris shear, then a Newell automobile shredder. (Since then, the company has continued to upgrade its equipment, replacing older units with a Harris HRB baler, a Vezzani gravity-feed guillotine shear, and a Texas Shredder automobile shredding system with advanced downstream metal sorting lines.)

Though always a member of the Institute of Scrap Iron and Steel (an ReMA predecessor) as well as ISRI, Ettleman never held office in either trade association. Still, he credits those organizations for limiting the government’s efforts to intrude more and more on the scrap business. “The institute does everything that it can to help companies meet their individual problems and, at the same time, it battles outside forces and agencies that want to limit the scrap industry’s role in our society,” he says.

Over the years, Ettleman has shown his support for ReMA not only through his dedicated membership but also by making his facility available for tours for ReMA staff and association visitors, among others. The close proximity of Davis Industries’ plant to ISRI’s Washington, D.C., offices—less than 30 minutes away—and Ettleman’s open-door policy have made his facility the perfect place to showcase the scrap industry’s invaluable recycling activities.

In addition to supporting ISRI, Ettleman deeply believes that scrap recyclers should be involved in their communities. In Fairfax County, Va., where Davis Industries is located, Ettleman set a stunning example. After the Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995, he worked with the Fairfax Fire and Rescue Department (which was sent to the disaster site to help find survivors) to raise funds for The Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City. A year later, on the anniversary of that tragedy, Ettleman says he was the only person asked by Fairfax’s rescue squad to accompany them back to Oklahoma City for a memorial event.

Remembering Relationships 

In his years in the industry, Ettleman met many of the scrap professionals who helped mold the business—some of whom he considers personal mentors. These include men like Leon Coslov and Bob Odle of Tube City L.L.C., his former partner Stanley Asrael, Bernie Gordon of Gordon Waste Co. Inc. and Super Salvage Inc., and Bill Bukevicz, a longtime Davis Industries employee who now serves as executive vice president.

One of Ettleman’s closest friends in the industry is Charles “Cricket” Williams, immediate past chair of ISRI, who is now a Davis vice president. “I knew Cricket when he was six years old because his father and I were good friends,” Ettleman recalls. “And Cricket is around today in our company, sharing his experiences and knowledge.”

Ettleman also points to his son-in-law, Fred Bonnett, president of Davis Industries, as someone taking the company in the right direction. Bonnett, who married Ettleman’s daughter Joyce, started with Alexandria Scrap back in 1967.

Ettleman, who is now in the process of retiring, considers the scrap industry to be “more international” today than when he first started, with today’s scrap dealers increasingly affected by supply-and-demand trends abroad. He also believes it’s becoming more difficult to achieve a “one-on-one” relationship with consumers the way scrap dealers did years ago. In addition, the need for more and more equipment means that opening a scrap facility today would require “a tremendous amount of money.”

Fortunately, “we happen to have entered a successful period in scrap,” says Ettleman, who remembers when ferrous scrap was $28 a ton delivered and copper was 13 cents a pound. “Prices may not stay high,” he states, “but demand for scrap will always be there, and suppliers will always be readily available.”

Some problems—such as safety—will also always be there, Ettleman notes. Fortunately, he adds, today’s scrap operations are better able to handle safety concerns because of the mergers and consolidations of the 1990s, which brought large corporations into the scrap industry. These corporations were equipped to deal with problems like safety, equipment integration, and the creation of better outlets for scrap worldwide, he remarks.

When asked what he would say to someone entering the scrap business today, Ettleman considers the question carefully. Ultimately, he says, “you must establish good relationships with your employees, your vendors, suppliers, and manufacturers—but you must never forget to develop a good relationship with your community. That’s vital.” 

Ettleman’s Essentials
Background: Born August 11, 1921, in Beltz, Romania.
Education: Immigrated to the United States in 1929, first to Alexandria, Va., then Washington, D.C., where he graduated from McKinley Technology High School.
Military Service: Served as a paratrooper with the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, January 1943 to February 1946. 
Family: Ettleman met his future wife, Evelyn, during World War II while he was dating her roommate. They were married in 1944 and last year celebrated their 60th anniversary. Their family includes Robert, a dentist in Tampa, Fla., and Joyce, who is married to Fred Bonnett, president of Davis Industries, plus four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Career: After working with his father at Alexandria Junk Co. (Alexandria, Va.), Ettleman helped manufacture icemaking equipment and helped install the Pentagon’s air-conditioning system. After being discharged from the Army in 1946, he rejoined his father’s scrap business and soon acquired it. In 1971, Ettleman sold the firm to his partner, Stanley Asrael, and stayed out of the scrap business for three years to honor a noncompete clause. In 1974, he purchased Davis Industries in Lorton, Va.
Hobbies: Fishing, boating, and enjoying two classic cars—a 1930 Rolls-Royce (which he restored) and a 1937 Cadillac limousine.

Si Wakesberg is New York bureau chief for Scrap.