Wire-Chopping Maestro

Dick Zampiello has been in the metals industry since 1964, mostly in the wire-chopping niche. Even after 40 years, his love for the industry drives him onward.

By Si Wakesberg

If you had to pick one person to discuss the specialized scrap recycling niche of wire chopping—its history, its challenges, its opportunities, its idiosyncrasies—you couldn’t find a better person than Dick Zampiello.
Wire chopping and Zampiello can be likened to an orchestra and a conductor who knows the score by heart and who can, thus, lead the musicians easily through the composition. 
   Maestro Zampiello’s expertise in wire and cable recycling stems from his 49-year career working for six different companies on both the manufacturing and scrap sides of the business. Currently, he resides and works in Washington, Conn., serving as industrial marketing executive for Omni-Source Corp. (Fort Wayne, Ind.), one of the largest U.S. scrap processing companies. In this position, Zampiello—called “Zamp” or “Zampy” by many friends and colleagues—does what he does best: Buying aluminum and copper wire and cable scrap from manufacturing operations and utilities, then selling the processed chops, predominantly to domestic consumers.
   After 40 years in the metals business, you’d think that Zampiello—now almost 71—would be ready to sit back and reap some just rewards for his decades of hard work. Not him. “As long as I’m capable of contributing,” he says, “I’ll remain in the industry into the near future.” 
   Here’s a look at the past, present, and future of this wire-chopping maestro.

Mastering Metals
Dick Zampiello has spent the majority of his career working in Connecticut, which is appropriate given that he was born, raised, and educated there.
   Richard Sidney Zampiello was born in 1933 in New Haven, Conn., where his family lived until moving to Hamden when he was in high school. He stayed in-state for college, attending Trinity College in Hartford from 1951 to 1955 and earning a bachelor of science degree in engineering. His first job was working for Westinghouse Electric Corp. in manufacturing engineering, first in Pittsburgh and later in Bridgeport, Conn. There, he attended night school at the University of Bridgeport, beginning classes in 1959 and earning his master of business administration degree there in 1961.
   Since Westinghouse was a consumer of copper, it was there that Zampiello started learning about red metals. This on-the-job education would figure prominently in his career. In 1964, for instance, he left Westinghouse to become executive vice president of Ullrich Copper Inc. (a division of Hussey Copper Ltd.), with responsibility for running its copper bus-bar mill in Kenilworth, N.J. While working for this copper consumer, Zampiello got to know a handful of scrap traders, including Gerry Lennard of Gerald Metals Inc. (Stamford, Conn.). It was Lennard who, in 1971, first enticed Zampiello to step into the scrap industry.
   To this day, Zampiello considers Lennard one of his most important mentors. “I knew very little about the scrap industry when I joined his company,” he admits. “Gerry was a remarkable teacher, though sometimes he’d get exasperated with me and say, ‘Stop being an engineer and learn the scrap business!’”
   Zampiello proved to be a fast learner. Notably, he helped Gerald Metals make its first foray into the physical side of the scrap business by opening a wire-chopping operation for the firm in Waterbury, Conn. From 1971 to 1984, he led the company’s growth in that sector, opening an additional wire-chopping plant in Alabama in 1981.
   Zampiello’s 13 years with Gerald Metals were a fulfilling, educational time, a period that he calls his “salad days” in the scrap industry. Looking back, he can’t help but recall a humorous anecdote. The story involved his college roommate and Gerald Metals coworker Warren Gelman. At that time, Gelman was an avid collector of artifacts such as copper ice-cream molds, duck decoys, and so on. In those days, it wasn’t unusual for a load of copper and brass scrap to contain such treasures.
   Gelman had just purchased a load of scrap wire, and he asked the dealer to include an ornate ceiling fan, vintage 1920, at the end of the load.
   “When the truck arrived,” recounts Zampiello, “the plant guys came into my office, told me about a ‘piece of junk’ mixed in with the wire, and asked me what they should do with it. I told them to throw the thing into the trash dumpster and deduct the weight from the total. Then Warren called to say he’d be coming to the plant in a few days to pick up his antique ceiling fan. Unfortunately, the dumpster had already been hauled to the landfill. Need I say more? I don’t think Warren has forgiven me for that incident to this day.”
   Zampiello’s years with Gerald Metals gave him a solid education in wire chopping, an education that would serve him well later. But first, in 1984, his career took a “sidetrack” when he went to work for Ben Fixman at Diversified Metals Corp. “Ben was the Horatio Alger of wire chopping in the early 1960s,” says Zampiello. “He was an innovator and a creative personality. Ben’s favorite words when he became agitated were: ‘I can see you haven’t had much experience at shooting pool. You know you can never win at pool shooting a scared stick—now let’s get with the program!’”
   Fixman appointed Zampiello president of the Plume & Atwood brass mill in Thomaston, Conn. His task was to oversee a $10-million modernization program at the mill, adding state-of-the-art continuous-casting technology and restructuring its marketing efforts.
   By 1989, however, Zampiello felt nostalgic for the scrap industry, so he returned to the business by joining Schilberg Integrated Metals Corp. (Willimantic, Conn.). Drawing on his wire-chopping knowledge, he helped the company open new operations in upstate New York and South Carolina.
   Zampiello remained with Schilberg until 2002, when he was asked to join OmniSource, which operates “arguably the largest wire-chopping and plastic-reclamation facilities in North America” in Fort Wayne, he says.

Wire-Chopping Changes
With 30 years in the wire-chopping niche, you could say Zampiello has lived the history of the business. He has seen it through good times and bad. He has seen players come and go. He has witnessed the steady improvements in processing technology. He has, in short, seen it all.
   Until the end of World War II, he notes, the predominant method for recovering aluminum and copper from scrap wire and cable was to burn off the insulation. This was environmentally detrimental since the process emitted pollutants into the air and generated potentially hazardous ash. Also, the recovered wire became embrittled and oxidized in the burning process, thus changing the physical and chemical characteristics of the metal. The government responded by imposing bans on the uncontrolled burning of this material, beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
   These bans forced scrap operators to pursue other methods of recycling wire and cable, which lent momentum to the so-called cold process of wire chopping. This method was not only environmentally friendly, but it also produced a superior recovered product since it didn’t change the physical or chemical composition of the conductor. Additionally, the yields improved significantly compared with the burning process. This led to “unprecedented growth in the wire-chopping industry,” Zampiello explains. Chop-ping became the dominant, environmentally conscious approach to recycling scrap wire and cable.
   The industry grew from about 35 to 40 operators in the 1970s to 50 to 65 companies in the 1990s through today. The industry’s heyday era was from about 1978 to 1988, Zampiello notes, when “there was still an abundance of wire manufacturing in the United States” and, hence, plentiful scrap supplies as well as demand. Ironically, these positive conditions led to an oversupply of wire-chopping capacity, which was subsequently exacerbated by a decline in the number of U.S. wire manufacturers, a significant reduction in scrap generation due to improved manufacturing techniques, as well as a decreasing supply of domestic wire due to competition from export buyers.
   The industry’s most formidable challenge, though, came in the late-1980s in the form of environmental restrictions on tailings, Zampiello says. Tailings are the residue left over after chopping, mostly composed of the plastic insulation and baghouse “fluff” from scrap wire and cable. The problem with tailings was that the material often included plastic insulation made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which contained lead as a stabilizer for the chlorine. Environmental officials worried that lead and other hazardous constituents could potentially leach from tailings in landfills.
   In response to such concerns, the U.S. EPA and state environmental agencies required wire choppers to test their tailings using, first, the Extraction Procedure (EP) Toxicity text and, in the 1990s, the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP). These tests were designed to evaluate whether a waste was likely to leach one or more regulated constituents, including lead.
   The tests posed “a monumental challenge for wire choppers,” says Zampiello. “It was a hellish period, to say the least. Choppers became a target of the regulatory agencies, and we had to put our thinking caps on in a hurry and come up with solutions. We had to make many changes in our processes immediately or face the prospect of ceasing operations.”
   Wire choppers scrambled to find ways to recycle tailings or neutralize the lead so the material could pass the TCLP test prior to landfilling. [Zampi-ello himself, in fact, is a co-inventor of a process for the remediation of wastes from wire-chopping and auto-shredding operations. The process has been submitted to the U.S. Patent Office for approval.] These TCLP worries, which reached their zenith in the early 1990s, have since calmed.
   Currently, most wire choppers either stabilize their tailings using an alkaline treatment product, or they recover the plastics for beneficial reuse. (For more on that topic, see “Recycling Wire Chopping Plastics” in the November/December 1998 issue.)
   Today, the U.S. wire-chopping industry faces new challenges in the form of intense competition for scrap wire and cable from overseas buyers, especially China. “China has always been a player for inexpensive industrial feed for its economy, and this is especially true today when it comes to copper,” Zampiello says. “In the past, when copper prices would go up, China would back out of the market. Currently, it hasn’t retracted on any of the metals, particularly on copper.”
   According to Zampiello, Chinese buyers have already captured 80 to 90 percent of the dealer wire business—that is, wire purchased from small utilities, manufacturers, contractors, and the like. Dealer wire accounts for about 20 percent of the overall domestic supply of scrap wire, he says, with the remainder coming from major manufacturers and utilities. This latter material is still mostly processed by domestic wire choppers, though Chinese buyers are making inroads into this area as well, especially the utility side of the business.
   Competition for this feedstock will only intensify in the future. “In three to five years,” Zampiello asserts, “there will be a scramble for supplies and the number of domestic choppers will most likely decline.”

Future Days of ‘Glory and Profit’
Throughout his career, Zampiello’s expertise in wire chopping made him a perfect candidate to serve on the wire chopping committees of both the National Association of Recycling Industries (NARI) and ISRI, whose wire group he ultimately led as chairman. Over the years, he served on other association committees and invariably attended industry conventions and regional chapter meetings, which he still does to this day.
   These days, Zampiello believes that ISRI—like all associations—is being affected not so much by changes in its industry but by the way business is being conducted in the United States. In his view, there’s a tendency toward individualistic thinking and a corresponding decline in dependence on associations. Still, he emphasizes, ISRI’s efforts on behalf of the scrap industry—especially regarding environmental compliance and safety legislation—remain essential, adding that they “are right on target and serve the members well.”
   Now almost 71, Zampiello would be perfectly justified to be a full-time retiree, but he prefers to keep a hand in the business. Why? “I hate to say that work is my hobby,” he explains, “but it is in that I truly enjoy my current job and my association with the industry in general.” Plus, he’s excited about the industry’s prospects, predicting that the business is on the verge of a “rebirth” leading to “days of glory and profit” like before.
   Not that he doesn’t have any outside interests, mind you. “I used to enjoy traveling,” he says, “but I don’t travel as much these days. I enjoy some gardening, sailing, and keeping up with our 1810 farmhouse. I may even turn out to be a better golfer some day.” It’s just that he has such an affection for the scrap industry, such a home, that he can’t bow out—at least not yet.
   Asked about the fundamental lessons he has learned in the scrap industry, Zampiello reflects for a moment, then replies: “When I first entered this industry, I considered myself an ‘outsider.’ I soon discovered that the industry has a common thread woven throughout its membership—and that was a willingness to accept and do business on the basis of trust, a trait that continues to be an underlying principle that has made for its growth and success.”
   Upon further reflection, Zampiello recalls another lesson learned. “Your reputation is the most important thing,” he says. “No matter what your talent is, no matter how smart you are, you quickly learn that the industry is founded on a person’s word and his commitment to do what he says he will. That is definitely the route to success in the scrap business.” 

Getting to Know Zampy 
Background: Born May 7, 1933, in New Haven, Conn.
Education: B.S. degree in engineering from Trinity College (Hartford, Conn.) and MBA from University of Bridgeport (Bridgeport, Conn.).
Family: Married Helen Shirley Palsa in 1961. Zampiello met Palsa while at Westinghouse Electric Corp., where she worked in the human resources department. One son, Geoffrey, who is an internet engineer for SBC in Meriden, Conn.
Career: First job was at Westinghouse Electric Corp. in Pittsburgh and Bridgeport, Conn., from 1955-1964. Worked at Ullrich Copper Inc. in Kenilworth, N.J., from 1964-1971. First scrap industry job was with Gerald Metals Inc. from 1971-1984. Then moved to Diversified Metals Corp., running the firm’s Plume & Atwood brass mill in Thomaston, Conn., until 1989. Returned to the scrap industry in 1989 with Schilberg Integrated Metals Corp. (Willimantic, Conn.). In 2002, joined OmniSource Corp., working from Washington, Conn.
Association Service: Member of NARI and ReMA wire chopping committees (including serving as chairman of the latter group), among other committees. Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Society of Manufacturing Engineers, and the Copper Club. •

Si Wakesberg is New York bureau chief for Scrap.