Few local businesses can claim to have made Willliamsport home as long as Staiman Recycling Corp., and few can say they are growing in a down economy.
Last fall the business, which has been in the Staiman family for several generations, expanded to include a 30,000-square foot facility on Walnut Street.
"We acquired that land with the intention of building on it," said company president Richard Staiman.
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MIKE?REUTHER/Sun-Gazette
Staiman Recycling Corp. Executive Vice President Andrew Naporano, left, and company President Richard Staiman inside the business’s new recycling facility. The company put up the building last year, allowing the company to relocate some of its recycling activities.
The building houses some of the recycling activities the company is known for, but which had been occurring elsewhere.
"Space was our consideration," said Staiman who in 1991 took over the reins of the company from his father Marvin. "We added space to allow for better sorting."
Andrew J. Naporano, executive vice president, noted that work inside the site includes getting materials such as aluminum cans ready for shipping.
"It's processing recycling material into a form that makes it marketable," he said. "We put in a large industrial bailer. It bundles cans and all sorts of non-ferrous grades including aluminum, copper, stainless steel products. We have a copper chopper. It granulates insulated copper wire into a pure copper by separating the insulation from the copper."
Up to 10 jobs have been added with the addition of the facility.
Overall, the company recycles ferrous and non-ferrous metals as well as paper and plastics.
In other words, the company makes use of materials that would otherwise end up in a landfill.
On an given day, pickup trucks and other vehicles can be seen lining up outside Staiman's on Hepburn Street hauling materials waiting to be processed.
The company also maintains the Newberry Rail Division site several miles west where rail materials are received and processed.
Railroad rail and related materials are sorted and graded into relay reroll and scrap, according to the company website. Scrap rail can be then be shipped to steel mills and foundries.
The company recycles in excess of 20 million pounds of material per month.
Steel is the biggest product, Staiman said.
"We've added employees," Naporano said. "Business is pretty good."
The company traces its origins to 1900 when Kaiman and Jacob Staiman saw the need for recycling in Williamsport.
Through four generations of the Staiman family, the company has strived to meet the demands of recycling.
"The business is 112 years old," Naporano said. "That's significant."
Staiman Recycling employs about 135 people, including some 20 at its York County facility.
That additional recycling facility, the Hanover Drop-Off Center, was established in 2000 to serve customers of western York County, Adams County and Northern Maryland.
