Pop Up Retail Stores..Good. Pop Up Scrap Yards…Not So Much.

Nike Pop Up Store in Tokyo

One of the newer innovations that we have seen in retailing over the past few years is the development of “Pop-up Stores”. You will recognize these, as they seem to just appear in a particular space for a relatively short period of time and then disappear. As we approach the Halloween and then the Christmas Season, we will see more of them.

The trend has been adopted by a number of well-known companies including Nike, Walmart and Target to name just a few. These pop up stores offer a low cost way to heighten brand awareness, promote particular product lines and, of course, to entice consumers to spend.

Urban Mining For Gold

As we continue to collect more and more electronics at our Mississauga and Oakville locations, we increasingly find ourselves addressing our customers’ curiosity about the nature and extent of the precious metals that they understand are contained in these electronics, particularly gold.

The Rich History Of Gold

Any deep discussion about gold is bound to be a complicated one since it has been in use for at least the past 6,000 years for a variety of purposes, and also because humans have strong emotional ties to gold. The real question here, however, is motivated by the high value of gold today as it relates to its use in electronics and that is why our customers are asking us about it.

The Future Of Scrap Metal Recycling – A Global Perspective

All of us at Peel Scrap Metal like to take the time to talk with our customers. Some of us, because of the nature of our work, are less able to do this but our buyers and managers certainly always try to make a point of it.

Not only do we enjoy it, but these conversations help us to get a handle on what our customers think about our service, which helps us do a better job. We also enjoy it because it helps us get to  get to know our customers, and this is the key to helping provide them with useful information and sometimes to put them in touch with others.

Scales…One of Our Weighter Blog Posts, If You’ll Pardon The Pun

Easily the busiest pieces of equipment at any scrap metal recycling operation are the weigh scales. They provide the defining measurement for all material trading, both buying and selling.

There’s Nothing New About Scales.

The Egyptians were using scales more than 7000 years ago. Smart Egyptians.

Weigh scales date back to early Egyptian civilization. The earliest scales were found in an Egyptian grave and are at least 7000 years old. Modified and improved by many cultures over time they increasingly gained relevance with the introduction of the various media of exchange with fixed values. People needed to know the weight of a product in order to convert its value into currency.

Weighing In On Regulations

When we started our business in 1990, the work was more physical and the regulatory environment was less intrusive. Today, we have more equipment to handle the physical load but we are surrounded by a sea of regulations involving such policy areas as human resources, occupational health and safety, the environment, taxation and so on. While perhaps well intended for the most part, they are difficult to navigate and often questionable in their language, intent and execution.

Sustainability – The New Mother of Innovation

Welcome to 2012!

Writers commonly suffer from a condition which is often referred to as “writer’s block”. According to Wikipedia, this is a condition in which the author loses the ability to produce new work.

We find the same type of thing is often in play in business. A great number of companies can tend to get ‘blocked’ by continuing to employ many of the same formulas which have allowed them to prosper in the past. At their peril, they often fail to take into account that conditions around them have changed.

About Innovation

Recycling…Not the Oldest Profession, But Certainly Right Up There.

Recycling has been around for a quite a while. We know this because archeologists have discovered that in periods when resources were scarce they find less waste at archeological sites. In fact, researchers suggest that recycling may date back as far as 400 BC. They also suggest that the Romans were active in recycling. Plato is often cited as a strong advocate.

At some time in the last two thousand years, the clever local inhabitants of Venosa in Italy started recycling the marble from their demolished ancient monuments and using it for paving stones.

Many Kinds of Recycling