10/05/2026
A partnership beyond the bin.
A midwestern manufacturer precision-milling aircraft components had built a world-class recycling program: aluminum scrap carefully separated by alloy, including a dedicated press to puck their highest-value stream, clean 7050 aluminum turnings. For a long time, it worked beautifully.
Then contamination crept in. Other aluminum alloys started mixing into the 7050 pucking process, and the value of that scrap took a serious hit. Clean 7050 pucks commanded a $0.20/lb premium over mixed aluminum, which meant a single roll-off of contaminated material could swing $6,000, adding up to hundreds of thousands in lost revenue over a year.
Standard vendors send emails and dock settlements. Our Customer Service team did something different: they got on the shop floor. After days of auditing and interviewing supervisors and operators, they uncovered the real root cause, a hidden HR reality. The "Material Handler" role, carrying all that financial leverage, was the lowest-paid, highest-turnover position in the plant.
Shapiro brought that finding straight to the manufacturer's executive leadership. Once the role was stabilized, our team rolled out a complete program reset: hands-on lunch-and-learns explaining the financial stakes to every shift, simple visual controls and color-coded hoppers, and direct incentives for the material handler team.
The results: contamination in the 7050 stream dropped to zero, consistency was restored across every shift, and full premium pricing returned to the bottom line.
The takeaway: process and pricing are only half the battle in a recycling program. It takes people to execute, and it takes a true partner to help uncover where the real value is hiding.
