Our Philosophy

"We strive to deliver safe, efficient and professional recycling services while reducing waste and abandoned materials resulting in rejuvenating the natural beauty and spirit of the Island."

 

 A message from Sandy
Shadrow, SOS Metals Island Recycling   

 It was about MANY years ago that my brother Donny and I passed each other. Each of us was driving a big 2 ton stake trucks with wood side gates that were 6 feet tall and weighted almost a hundred pounds each. We had to lift those side gates on and off our trucks many times daily. This was to load the drums and containers of scrap from our customers onto our trucks. That is how we started our business. Thinking about it now, this was probably the beginning of the back problems that I feel today.

Anyway, there we both were, I remember it very clearly. Don was driving his green GMC truck and I was driving my white Ford, both in opposite directions. We flashed our headlights at each other. You know, just like the big semi trucks did, and we waived as we passed each other. You see, Donny had just finished picking up a load of scrap, and was heading home. I was headed over to pick up scrap from one of my customers, who were also in the same area that Donny had just left.

That night when we met at my parent's house, we both came up with the same idea. As we drove past each other I thought "why don't you pick up that same area for both of us? I will go to another area, where we both have customers and pick up the scrap over there for both of us! Well, it all made perfect sense. The year was 1976. We were both barely in our 20's. With that, we each put up $1000.00 and opened a bank account. We named our new partnership SOS METALS, for a variety of reasons. Soon after that, we rented part of a warehouse located in downtown Los Angeles. We could not afford to rent the entire place...and away we went!

A lot has happened since WE drove past each other that day. But the two of us driving separate trucks would still be exactly in the same place if not for one very important thing… ALL OF YOU WHO ARE HERE TODAY!!! You are the reason for our success, our prosperity, and all the things that we enjoy today. If not for the help of our customers and the hardworking people as SOS, we would not have built our business to where we are now.

You see, Donny and I are a couple of guys who had a hard time getting through school, and who barely went to college. I went for one year, and Donny went for one day! My brother and I are constantly looking for new ways to build and to grow our company so that when one door closes, we open three more doors. So, how did we end up here? Well, we both love Hawaii, so it was inevitable that one day we each bought homes here on Maui. After spending some time here, my brother Donny got restless and one day he drove me around. We saw hundreds of abandoned appliances and cars…It was a mess.

On one of my trips to Maui in March of 2005, the headline of the Maui News paper read, "Maui's only scrap yard closes." Donny had a light bulb go off ... there was the idea of a need to do something, on an island which we both love, which was quickly turning into a dumpsite for abandoned cars and appliances. So after the two of us talked it over, our view of the situation was the following. If a doctor was sitting by the pool and a guy has a heart attack, what's he going to say? 'Sorry I'm on vacation?' We just couldn't stand by without doing something. Maui needs to do something. We saw a huge demand for our services. So while Donny was busy on the mainland getting jet engine scrap, I took the idea of opening a scrap recycling yard on Maui and ran with it (tough job, but one of us had to make it happen)! So, after a lot of politics and the help of great people, we opened. We now have the premier recycling operation on Maui. So far we invested over 2 million dollars into this site. We have developed cutting-edge environmental controls that will eliminate pollution. Our company's professional approach to recycling combines efficient recycling with environmental responsibility.

In 2006, the county signed a contract with SOS Metals to handle the abandoned and derelict cars and white goods appliances that are dumped along Maui's roads and in open fields. Bruce Mizel, General Manager, told the newspapers, "We're going to save the taxpayers big time, it will be over one million dollars a year. SOS cut the price less than half of what the county was paying before we came on the scene."

Since then, we have recycled a staggering 10 million lbs of metals! We have worked with Community Workday Program to stay open on weekends and receive all the scrap form the Hana highway "clean-up" as well as many other clean-up projects. We continued, with the help of our staff at SOS Metals to start operations in Vermont, Wichita, Kansas; San Diego, Mexico, New Mexico, Seattle, Washington, as well as in Hong Kong , Singapore, Europe, and Canada.

I say this to all of our great SOS family.... Through all of your hard work we, have accomplished so much. Through your hard work, we have become the most progressive metal company in the world. So cheers to ALL OF YOU! To all the hard- working people at SOS, to the baler operators, the forklift drivers, the truck drivers, and to all people who work their butt off to help keep Maui clean, free of junk, and scrap metal from lying around on our beautiful Island! YOU ARE ALL AWESOME! We say a huge and genuine...mahalo.