Farmington Hills man's thriving scrap metal business brings jobs to Melvindale

GLE Scrap Metal in Melvindale started by Nathan Zack is now $100 million business

MELVINDALE, Mich. – Despite the tough Michigan economy, over the past year one Farmington Hills man has grown his company and brought jobs to a place that hasn't seen any in more than a decade.

GLE Scrap Metal in Melvindale is a success story. It's a $100 million business started by Nathan Zack who says he created the business almost by accident 13 years ago.

"My mother was a member of Greenpeace and she was very environmental, so I started off recycling old computers," he said.

Zack started his business with only a few $100 in his pocket. He now runs 10 scrap yards from Florida to Chicago and he owns five here in Michigan.

"I came for opportunity. I had a chance to be a manager which I got within a year and 1/2 here and it's working out pretty good," said Bill Lemberis, owner of GLE Scrap.

After the domestic automakers heard about Zack they asked him to start recycling their scrap which is how the new yard opened this past spring in Melvindale.

"They wanted us to take on some of the old steel stampings and punchings, so we started recycling all that material and we've hired about 50 people in the Metro Detroit area to do that," said Zack.

Soon, a new railroad track will be installed so GLE can start shipping scrap to other parts of the country.

"It's nice to put people back to work who were working in the auto plants, they're still somewhat working in an auto plant, just a different end of it," said Zack.