A Leader in Scrap Metal Recycling

Richmond Steel Recycling is a leading scrap metal recycler located in the heart of British Columbia. We are committed to the principles of environmental sustainability and work to protect our planet by recycling a wide range of scrap metals. Having over four decades of experience in the recycling industry gives us the edge to maintain top-notch safety standards in addition to providing world-class service.

When a customer calls into Richmond Steel Recycling, firstly, we offer them competitive market pricing for their scrap material. Beyond that, we offer a number of off-site services including mobile auto-crushing and scrap baling services. We are able to provide assistance to your next demolition project. We also can assist with scrap metal services for maritime salvage. And we can help our landfill customers by offering services to help with their scrap metal removal.

With five locations spread across British Columbia, Canada, we support local communities in Western Canada, Alberta, Alaska, and Washington State in becoming green by giving new life to metals recovered from their landfills, demolition sites, and unusable equipment. We offer competitive pricing and off-site services.

Global Experience – Local Service

Richmond Steel Recycling is a joint venture between two publicly-traded companies: Sims Metal Management and Nucor Corporation. We have been recycling metal since 1971 with the vision to become a leader in promoting sustainability by recycling scrap metal. In simple terms, our purpose is to decrease our species’ negative impact on the environment by giving new life to scrap metal.

Our operation works by categorizing scrap metals as either ferrous or non-ferrous. Scrap appliances, automobiles, and other light gauge metals are shredded into small pieces. The ferrous and non-ferrous metals are first separated and then further separation of the debris takes place using blowers and reverse magnets. The metal is then sold to steel mills or smelters for the production of new steel or non-ferrous metals.

When companies extract metal from the earth through various mining processes, they not only harm the environment by causing soil, air, and water pollution but also deplete our planet’s finite natural resources. We believe that a paradigm shift is necessary. We enable businesses across the globe to embrace a circular economy in which commodities that have already been used are not seen as waste but as something of high value, something that can be recycled and reused.

Like any other for-profit enterprise, Richmond Steel Recycling’s financial objective is to make a profit so that we can continue supporting efforts towards environmental sustainability. We achieve this by building long-term relationships with our stakeholders, creating an enriching environment for our employees, using state-of-the-art equipment, and providing world-class service to our large as well as small-volume clients.

Safety

Health

Environment

Community

Sustainability

Our purpose is guided by our core values of Safety, Health, Environment, Community and Sustainability. We have especially committed ourselves to the safety of our employees in whom we have instilled a mindset of ‘safety above all else’ so as to achieve a zero-harm workplace.

Community is an important part of what Richmond Steel Recycling stands for. We love to involve primary school students in what we do and host field trips to our facilities to educate and inspire young people because we believe that they are the future of sustainability for our planet.

Safety is not just safe practices, which we promote at every opportunity, but it’s also a mindset and core value that we work to inspire across the spectrum of our employees, our customers and our visitors.

Environmental responsibility is a core value that we promote both through our service as a metal recycler but also through our operations, from the care we take in what we accept and what we don’t accept to how we operate our business, with proper storm water controls and materials management.

In the early 1970’s, the operation was started by an entrepreneurial businessman and in 1971 the machinery and equipment were sold and the property was leased to the new owner. Richmond Steel Recycling became the wholly owned subsidiary of a steel manufacturing company and the shred production became an integral component of rebar, merchant bar, track spike and speciality bolting.

Over the ensuing years, RSR quietly became an established buyer of ferrous scrap and expanded its collection area with the addition of mobile crushers, bailers and other support equipment.

In 1988, the parent company ceased operation and was sold to another steel manufacturer based in Saskatchewan. For a period of time, the shred production became a component of small and large diameter steel pipe as well as rebar and merchant bar. Freight costs to the manufacturing operations in Calgary and Regina were relatively expensive and outside of corporate control so closer markets were investigated. Birmingham Steel in Seattle offered a viable opportunity and material could be transported by both barge and truck.

In the mid-1990s RSR was sold to Birmingham Steel and within a short period of time, Birmingham and Sims formed a partnership through their own wholly owned subsidiaries that each acquired a 50% control of the company. Eventually, Birmingham’s position was assumed by Nucor Steel.

As a consequence of investment and upgrades, Richmond Steel’s shredder production increased from the equivalent of 15 barges to 45 barges per year. The ferrous operation also included cut grade material produced by torch and mobile shear as well as some brokered material.

Another component of the company is the non-ferrous operation. Initially, the only products were aluminium and stainless steel recovered from the shredder waste. In 2005 RSR opened its doors and began to purchase non-ferrous materials – basically taking small and not necessarily clean quantities and building market quality and shipment quantity amounts.

From the late 1990’s until 2013, the corporation also grew from an operational standpoint through initiating start-up development or acquiring ownership of an existing yard.  Building yards in Prince George and then moving northward to Fort St. John, the company ended up buying operation in Kamloops.

It’s worth noting that the increase in ferrous production also created an expanded waste component that contains recoverable material so, in the true spirit of the ‘recycling’ portion of its name, RSR has invested and upgraded its non-ferrous recovery operation. Moving from a basic ECS recovery coupled to the waste conveyor, the company moved forward to a Stadler MRP System subsequently followed by another MRP involving an Ecostar separator coupled with sophisticated sensing equipment which has significantly increased non-ferrous recovery including ICW (fine Insulated Copper Wire) previously included in the landfill waste but is now part of the recovery material.

The corporation continues to look forward and seek opportunities that will carry it through its first fifty years and improve its position for decades to follow.