Family owned since 1989, Standard Industries is a recycling and demolition company that has operated in the Ventura Country area since its founding. The company initially began as a metal recycling company that handled both ferrous and non-ferrous metals. In the early 90’s the company expanded their base of operations. Standard Industries obtained a demolition license and branched out to handle demolition projects in addition to their recycling operations. The company services Southern California thru the Central Coast area. Their roster of clients include manufacturing companies, machine shops, welding and metal stamping companies as well as agricultural and aerospace industries. 

In 2002 Standard Industries relocated to their present location on Lirio Avenue in Ventura.  Currently the company is the largest metal recycler in the tri-county region. The new location covers some 8 acres that includes offices and the recycling plant. Since moving to their new location the company has also added the recycling of fibers to the large list of products they had already been working with. These include paper products, newspaper, cardboard and various grades of plastic. The move to new facilities not only allowed Standard Industries to increase the types of materials they recycled but also allowed the company greater warehouse space amounting to 75,000 sq. foot as well. With a greater area to set up their enterprise, Standard Industries also added a number of new pieces of machinery and equipment such as balers. This gave the company greater ability to process and package their recycled materials. Among the long list of materials the company recycles include concrete, asphalt, wood, rebar, electrical wire, copper, aluminum and high temp alloys. Approximately 80% of Standard Industries business is in recycling with demolition projects making up approximately 20%.

The exporting of the vast number of recycled materials is Standard Industries’ predominant market. China, Japan, Korea, India and Vietnam are just some of the markets the company deals with in their exportation of recycled materials. This in and of itself offers a number of challenges to the company. To be able to export materials to China the company had to first obtain a license from the Chinese government. Contrary to what many outside of the recycling industry may believe, China has very strict guidelines and regulations as to what types of materials may be imported into their country. In addition Standard Industries had to demonstrate that they had a strong quality control over not only the materials being recycled, but show evidence that the materials being exported were exactly that and did not contain percentages of unwanted materials, such as the combining of ferrous metals with non-ferrous. Due to a combination of the high cost of doing business and environmental restrictions, while Standard Industries does do some business with firms on the east coast, the vast majority of the company’s clients are Asian countries. No matter which direction the materials are going, everything must travel by container. If the materials are going to the east coast, they are loaded up and shipped in containers by rail. All exported products to Asia are likewise loaded into containers and taken to the Port of Long Beach where they are then shipped out.

Maintaining high quality control is an extremely important issue with Standard Industries, along with worker safety. “Quality control and worker safety are probably the two most important areas of our business,” said Sales and Marketing Manager, Marty Berkowitz. “One of the greatest challenges that the entire recycling industry faces is staying current with all the State and Federal guidelines and maintaining a good quality program and a training program for our staff so everyone learns how to handle the materials the right way.” What separates Standard Industries from the pack of other recycling and demolition companies is the fact that the company has a formal quality control program. “When we send our material anywhere in the world we know that if the receiving company orders a particular grade of metal, that is exactly what they are going to receive.” To be able to make this happen, Standard Industries uses a sophisticated array of testing equipment that allows every piece of material to be analyzed for it’s content. The company also employs a fulltime safety manager. The company’s quality control program is now being implemented by the nationwide trade organization agency ISRI [Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries].

To be able to service the wide area they do, Standard Industries has a strong inventory of equipment. Among the many pieces of machinery and equipment the company owns include: eight roll off trucks plus their boxes, three flatbed trucks, four semis and various types of trailers as well as fork lifts, skid steers, loaders, shears and hydraulic excavators that also include a wide array of attachments from electromagnets to pulverizers. Standard Industries works with a number of equipment suppliers. Among these are Coastline Equipment, sales rep Buck Baird and Quinn Company, sales rep Dan Walker. The company’s trucks are Peterbuilt from Rush Trucks, sale rep Jim Ricci.

Much of Standard Industries’ success is directly related to the employees working for the company. Making up the company’s management team is John Scheck, company founder and Vice President. John’s wife, Michelle is CEO and company president. John’s son Joe is the Facility and Operations Manager. John’s other son, Lennie is the company Demolition Supervisor. Randy Mayes is the company’s Chief Estimator. Among this group, the company boasts a combined industry experience of over 150 years. In addition to the management team Standard Industries employs approximately 50 personnel. Due in no small part to the family atmosphere of the company, the average tenure of the employees is approximately 10 years.

“This is a great company to work for,” said Marty. “I grew up in the scrap business and I’ve known John for some twenty-five years. When he was looking to expand and move to the new location, I joined the company. What I really enjoy about the business is that it is mostly in the area of marketing. The commodities we work with are constantly changing. It is never boring.” A perfect example of exactly what Marty is talking about is next up on the company agenda. Marty is currently working with companies in China and India developing markets to recycle textile materials such as carpet and clothing.

Emphasizing safety and quality control has made Standard Industries a success within the industry. Realizing the ever changing worldwide market and taking the necessary steps to change along with it only ensures the continued success of this family owned and operated company. Cc