In the lead: Manny Bodner provides leadership beyond his Houston scrap company's property lines - Cover Story

Recycling Today, Dec, 2003 by Brian Taylor

Bodner Metal & Iron has been a part of the Houston economy since 1948, covering a span when Houston grew from a regional oil town into one of America's major cities.

The company was founded by Eugene (Gene) Bodner in the post-World War II era, with Eugene being joined by his son Emanuel (Manny) in 1969. Gene now serves as a senior advisor to the company while Manny serves as president and his sister Karen Bodner is the corporate secretary.

The Bodner family members have shepherded the company through what used to be a set of boom-and-bust cycles in Houston, all the while finding additional time to act in leadership roles in their state and in the scrap recycling industry.

HOUSTON RISING. Scrap recyclers are all too familiar with the cyclical nature of commodities, and at one time so were all Houstonians. "In the 1980s, when Texas was so dependent upon oil, if the oil industry would sneeze, the scrap industry here would catch the flu," says Manny.

In those previous decades, Manny notes that cotton, cattle and oil--all cyclical commodities--drove the Houston economy. Although those industries are still very much in evidence in Texas, the Houston economy has diversified well beyond them.

"We've seen such a diversification and there is a lot of building and construction at all times," says Manny. "The Houston office towers, the office park construction in and around Houston, that's an advantage for those of us in the scrap business here. It seems like we're always building. As bad as markets might be elsewhere, Houston just doesn't get that bad. And by the same token, when markets swing way up, Houston is already there to some extent."

"The booming office, service, technology and commercial sectors of the Houston economy have changed the nature of how Bodner Metal & Iron operates compared to earlier decades. "We've certainly, as a company, shifted dependence away from relying on just the oil-related segments of the industry," says Manny.

From a 10-acre location in north central Houston, Bodner Metal & Iron, serves a variety of industrial and commercial accounts, as well as taking in scale traffic carrying both ferrous and nonferrous metals. (The company will also "market selected grades of paper and plastic," according to Manny.)

The company's cranes, loaders and forklifts handle incoming material and direct it either for direct outbound shipment or, more commonly, for further processing in the form of shearing, torching and flattening on the ferrous side, and for shearing or baling for the nonferrous grades.

The company's indoor nonferrous facility handles a variety of industrial and contractor (construction, demolition and remodeling) scrap, and also handles aluminum used beverage containers (UBCs). "We promote the UBC collection as a public service for our community," notes Manny.

Portions of the company's across-the-scale traffic rise and fall with commodity prices, and Manny says the number of industrial accounts in Houston has been affected by the manufacturing slump just as it has in other parts of the U.S. "The base of materials that is generated as industrial scrap is not as large as it once was," says Manny. "We've seen a lot of machine shops, for example, move offshore, and we've seen the manufacturing sector contracting."

The saving grace for Bodner and other Houston processors, however, has been the booming building market in Houston. "We're seeing more of what I call a commercial scrap," says Manny. "Some of it is demolition scrap and some of it is what I call maintenance scrap. When plants or refineries in the area do a major repair or expansion, or if they are changing out their HVAC vents or pipes, these types of jobs yield that maintenance scrap."

Manny acknowledges that Bodner Metal & Iron is by no means the largest scrap processing firm operating in Houston, but he says he and the company's other managers pay attention to stay attuned to the right opportunities and to forge relationships with key suppliers. For instance, Manny notes that the company over the past decade or so the company has been emphasizing acquiring post-consumer scrap such as automobiles, white goods and agricultural scrap.

"You try to position yourself to take advantage opportunities," he remarks. "We work with construction and demolition contractors, without question. Our philosophy is built on relationships. I believe the basis of our business on both the buying and selling ends are very definitely built on relationships.

SERVICE CALLING. Many scrap recyclers, Manny Bodner among them, believe that scrap recyclers are in the service industry as much as they are in an industrial products sector.

Manny has committed not only his company to the notion of service, but has devoted himself to serving regional and state civic causes, as well as recycling industry-specific causes.

Within the industry, Manny has long been active with the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI), particularly with its Gulf Coast Chapter. "I think that firms engaged in recycling should be members of their trade and professional association," says Manny of ISRI involvement. "In my mind, it's more than a trade association, it's a trade and professional association. What I enjoy is that in the association, and in the chapter, we tend to challenge each other to think beyond ourselves. I find that very exciting. There is tremendous talent within the chapters and within the national organization. Our industry needs the expertise to evolve into the next phase."