By Barbara Scott
Staff Writer
“When we came to observe in Aroostook County, OneSteel determined Caribou to be a good central location, one which still had rail access, a good place to deliver our service,” stated Leon Dorr, OneSteel Recycling project manager.
Aroostook Republican photo/Barb Scott
Leon Dorr, left, project manger of OneSteel Recylcing assesses a pile of metal scrap with Dan Pelletier, yard foreman. The recycling business opened last month and is located at 208 Limestone Street in Caribou.
OneSteel Recycling, whose headquarters are based in Australia, with its Maine corporate office in Oakland, opened a metal recycling location Caribou, on July 19. The business is located at 208 Limestone Street (next to the river and railroad tracks, on what used to be locally known as “Broadway”, where the street was once lined with potato storage houses.
According to company information, the new Caribou business, OneSteel, has been a leader in metal recycling in Maine since 1986, currently operating in five locations throughout Maine including Caribou, Arundel, Augusta, Bangor and Oakland; where it delivers service to more than 125 municipal and industrial customers, representing large cities, small towns, paper mills, machine shops, construction contractors, auto parts and snow-plow manufacturers; public utilities and federal government contractors.
“We’re hoping to load the railcars bi-weekly and most likely order the cars two or three at a time,” stated Dorr. “Anybody with metal they wish to have recycled can contact us,” he added.
Aroostook Republican photo/Barb Scott
Leon Dorr, left project manager of OneSteel Recycling which recently opened an operation in Caribou, stands with Dan Pelletier, yard foreman. Pelletier is a native of Limestone.
Dorr, who has been a project manager with OneSteel for three years said, “Once the scrap is brought into the yard, material is graded and sorted based upon structure, characteristics and composition, then shipped to other sites where it is processed and prepared to market/commodity standards. All non-ferrous material is cleaned and bailed prior to shipping, maximizing the quantity that is shipped.” OneSteel ships the scrap material to global foundries, where once processed, it is sold to other markets.
“The business is all based on volume,” said Dorr, “there is no flat rate for the material and we will not be stock-piling the scrap.”
OneSteel Recycling offers a full line of recycling services including roll-off containers/pick-up services and demolition consultation. OneSteel Recycling offers municipalities metal recycling consulting services to assist in identifying and sorting metals, insuring the highest market price and municipal customer data for state reporting.
“We couldn’t be more pleased with the way things are going,” said the project manager. “The local contractors who have helped us have done a wonderful job, our goal was to use these people in order to generate local business. My aim is to develop and run an honest, clean, fair business, taking the time to get to know our customers. I want to build a trust with them and vice versa,” he added. OneSteel currently employs five fulltime employees.
Business hours are: Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays 7:30 a.m. to noon.
For more information call 492-1182.
