This is what recycling leadership looks like

In the 1980s, Susan and Clinton Weinstein arrived in Atlanta, Georgia, from South Africa with young children, limited resources, and a fierce determination to build something of their own. From their simple start as a typical scrapyard — smelting aluminum and buying and selling scrap — the Weinsteins would build a notable, full-service recycling enterprise.

For Susan, the journey from South Africa into scrap metal wasn't a calculated leap. It was a pragmatic step toward stability in a new country. "It just grew organically," she says. "We started small, with very little. Then we started putting in more equipment, improving processes, and making smarter decisions as we went."

Decades later, M&M is more than a business. It's a multi-generational ecosystem of family leadership, long-time employees, and next-generation innovation led in part by Susan and Clinton's daughter, Saren Weinstein-Schapiro, and by their son, Ryan Weinstein.

On women in recycling

Susan never saw herself as a woman in a man's world. "In this industry, you either step up or you don't," she says. "It's not about gender. It's about character."

That said, she acknowledges that there weren't many women around when she started. "It was mostly mom-and-pop scrapyards, and women would be in the office while the men were in the yard. But both roles were essential."

Saren agrees. "Growing up, I never heard, ‘You can't do that because you're a girl.' It was always, ‘Of course you can do that.'"

Now, as the industry begins to welcome more women into leadership roles in operations and on the technology and business side, Saren sees visibility as key.

"There are so many ways to be part of this industry," she says. "But if young women don't know it exists, they won't pursue it. That's why education and exposure are so important."

Growing up in the yard

"I always thought it was so much fun," Saren says, reflecting on her childhood in and around the scrapyard. "Saturday mornings meant riding along with my Dad and french toast sticks on the way to the yard. And there were always scrapyard dogs. Many of the dogs we had growing up came from the yard."

But while her early years were steeped in the sounds, smells, and steel of the family business, Saren initially forged her own path. After venturing cross-country to make her own way and earning a degree in speech pathology, Saren launched successful practices in the healthcare field, raised a family, and homeschooled her children for nearly five years.

"I've been running businesses, building teams, and implementing technology for 17 years. All of that feeds directly into what I'm doing [now] at M&M," she says. "But it wasn't a straight line. For many years, I thought, ‘There's no way I'm going into the family business.'"

That changed when Saren saw an opportunity not just to continue her parents' legacy, but to evolve it, bringing in more modern systems, a renewed focus on leadership development, and a sense of long-term vision. "I think when you grow up surrounded by something, even if you leave it for a while, it's still in your blood."

Strategically positioned

With multiple large-scale players operating mega-shredders and export hubs, Atlanta is a competitive landscape where location and efficiency can make or break a business.

"Atlanta's very unique," says Susan. "Because of the traffic, the demographics, there is a place for the middle guys and the smaller guys . . . no single company can buy everything."

M&M's facilities are spread across Atlanta, one in Austell, one downtown near the airport, one in Griffin, and one in Locust Grove. These locations were selected deliberately to serve geographically distinct customer bases. Each site is equipped to receive, sort, and prepare materials for centralized processing.

The ability to process that volume efficiently is the name of the game.

"Our focus is to improve on the processes that we have and use technology to derive the most value from the scrap materials that we buy," says Susan. "In this industry everyone knows the most important thing is to upgrade wherever you can."

That means investing in downstream systems, refining material separation, and optimizing every load to turn low-grade mix into clean, high-value commodities ready for sale into domestic or international markets.

"Whether we processed or we didn't process, we always had somewhere to sell," she adds. "But today, the more value you can extract before it leaves your yard, the better your margins and your leverage."

Building from the inside

Today, M&M Recycling buys, processes, and resells ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal with four locations in the greater Atlanta area. The company handles a range of materials, including steel, copper, and aluminum sourced from public drop-offs, tradespeople, and industrial scrap producers. Materials are sorted, graded, and prepared for sale to domestic and international buyers. It also offers a logistics and trucking department and roll-off container service for industrial customers. These operations support metal recovery and recirculation across manufacturing supply chains.

As M&M Recycling has expanded its physical footprint by adding new equipment, multiple locations, and higher volumes, the internal infrastructure has had to grow with it. For Saren, that means looking beyond throughput and the machinery to the people doing the work.

"Part of growing on the outside," she says, "is that you need to have a solid team supporting each other on the inside." Every new piece of equipment or satellite yard requires capable hands, trained operators, and leaders who want to grow with the business. That's why Saren has made employee development a cornerstone of her role.

She describes her focus as building a workplace where people see not just a job, but a path. "Even though we're not corporate," she says, "they can still have some of the advantages of working for a mid-size company where team members are offered industry education, hands on training, and career, management, and leadership opportunities."

At each of M&M's sites, leadership development and internal promotions are prioritized. The goal is to cultivate people who understand the work and care about the culture. As the company grows, so does its commitment to training, mentorship, and investing in the workforce.

Working hard together

Long before leadership training programs or site-level expansion, the family business was built on one simple principle: the Weinstein family work ethic. "The harder you work, the luckier you get," Saren recalls, quoting one of her parents' guiding mantras. "There were no assumptions that we'd come into the family business. But we were absolutely expected to work hard at whatever we chose."

Today, Saren works alongside her parents, continuing the family tradition of showing up early, working hard, and leading by example. Susan's two sons are also part of the business, with Ryan involved in daily operations as vice president, and David, a real estate attorney, always keeping an eye out for new opportunities to grow the business. Son-in-law, Bram, and daughter-in-law, Danielle, have joined the family business too. "Our employees see how hard we work," says Susan. "There's no red tape, no closed doors. We support them the way we support each other."

Education, mentorship, and middle school entrepreneurs

To build a stronger pipeline of future talent and leadership, Saren recently launched a pilot entrepreneurship program with her daughter's school, The Howard School. The goal? Teach middle and high school students about the recycling industry by having them build their own scrap businesses.

Students form teams; learn about material types, logistics, and pricing; collect scrap together; and, at the end of the semester, visit M&M Recycling to sell what they've gathered.

"They go through the entire process from collection to processing to payout," Saren explains. "It's not just about recycling. It's about seeing the full loop and realizing there are career opportunities here."

The program is just one part of Saren's broader push to develop career and leadership tracks within M&M itself. "We want to build a place where people can grow, not just clock in and out," she says. "That means mentorship, training, and opportunities at every level."

Technology meets experience

As both generations at M&M work toward building a strong future, the family is focused on balancing new tools with hard-earned wisdom.

"When we started, a forklift felt like a big upgrade," Susan recalls. "Now we're looking at AI and automation, but this is still a hands-on industry. You have to touch the material. You have to know what you're buying, what it's turned into, and how it's being sold."

Saren is currently pushing to modernize more of the company's workflow: digitizing processes, introducing new hiring and training systems, and streamlining to make operations more efficient.

"There's a lot of negotiation over things like handwritten weight tickets," she jokes. "But we're getting there."

That balance of analog experience and digital progress is something both generations value. "The key is having a backup plan," Susan says. "You can use all the new tech, but you'd better still know how to run the yard if the power goes out."

Legacy in motion

When asked what she's most proud of, Susan doesn't hesitate. "That my kids went out into the world, explored it, and then chose to come back," she says. "They see value in what we've built. That's my greatest achievement."

And what does Saren hope her own legacy will be?

"I don't look for accolades and for big industry people to know my name," she says. "But I hope that everyone who worked with us remembers that this was a place where they were supported. Their experience was positive. I think if I can leave a legacy, it would be for my children to know that what we built here was meaningful to all the people that interacted with us."

This article originally appeared in the November/December issue of Recycling Product News.