A SALUTE TO AN CUSTOMER

KAPLAN’S METAL REDUCTION COMPANY, INC.

  Four-generation scrap recycling business built on quality customer service
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RRecycling is a concept that has been gaining momentum across the nation for the last few decades. Yet, for St. Paul-based Kaplan’s Metal Reduction Company, Inc., recycling has been a way of life for four generations of family members who have helped lead the highly successful enterprise since early in the last century.

A pioneer in the scrap metal industry since 1915, Kaplan’s Metal Reduction Company began operations in Northfield, Minn., with only a horse and wagon before establishing operations in St. Paul in 1929. Today, the company operates a large yard in downtown St. Paul at 355 East University Avenue under the name Metals Recycling Center. It uses stateof- the-art processing equipment and methods to recycle scrap metal from automobiles as well as other ferrous and nonferrous metals. The old horse-drawn wagon sits on top of the company’s office complex, showcasing its proud history in the industry.

According to general manager Bob Kaplan, great-grandson of the company founder, more

Kaplan's
Three generations guide Kaplan’s Metal Reduction Company. Standing in front of the company’s St. Paul facility are president Harold Kaplan (left); his father, Reuben Kaplan, consultant and former president (center); and Harold's son, Robert Kaplan, general manager.

 

than half of the Metals Recycling Center’s business is environmental processing and packaging for cars, which involves draining all the fluids, then harvesting usable metal. The other part of the business is recovering ferrous and nonferrous materials from various sources. “Ferrous material could be cast iron, sheet iron, unprepared iron. The nonferrous material consists of aluminum cans, aluminum scrap, copper, brass, stainless. We bring it all together and make packages. We’ll buy 100 pounds at a time, then we’ll turn around and sell 40,000- pound loads. It’s really not any different from what my grandfather and his father did,” he added. “You put little bits here and there together, make it a package and ship it out.”

Today, the strong family business is guided by three generations of the Kaplan family: Bob Kaplan; his father, Harold Kaplan, who serves as president; and Bob’s grandfather, Reuben Kaplan, a consultant for the firm after serving as president for many years. Together, they have a total of 111 years of experience in the scrap metal industry.

Turning trash into treasure

As an industrious arrival to the U.S. early in the 1900s, Reuben’s father, Hyman Kaplan, developed a business as an itinerant peddler, collecting and selling wares of all kinds. “Immigrants would pick out a territory, buy a horse and wagon, and peddle that little area until they made enough money to move forward,” Reuben explained. Hyman immigrated to the U.S. from Poland in 1910. He left a sweatshop job in St. Paul to purchase a horse and wagon from a peddler in Northfield in 1915.

“My dad was really a go-getter, and as a result he did extremely well,” said Reuben, who joined the company full-time in 1942. Hyman branched out into the fur and hide business, purchasing goods from local trappers, along with rags, paper, bottles and rubber.

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