25 years in the metal recycling game and still learning and growing...

I learnt from the best and worked my way up from yard labourer to Executive Director of Trading and Operations for the largest metal recycler in sub-Saharan Africa. Responsible for 4,500 employees, 85 sites, and the overall profitability of a multi-billion dollar operation.

Brought my breadth and depth of knowledge to bear and co-founded the fastest growing, most-loved, and most awarded metal recycling company in New Zealand. No small feat in a country where people are outnumbered 4:1 by sheep (spoiler alert: sheep don’t produce much metal).

I thought it was time that tech worked for our industry, so I took all of my experience as an operator and trader and leveraged that to build THE killer scrap app, Buddy. Thats right - built for scrappies, by scrappies.

Father of two crazy-awesome boys. Husband to Lisa. Under 10 football coach. YPO member. Lifelong learner. Mentee. Mentor. Chief dog walker. Committed Stoic. Undefeated dance-off champion.

PS - if you are a scrap metal exporter looking to up your game, tune into my podcast Born Scrappy https://tinyurl.com/BornScrappy

PPS - if you’re looking to make better trades with less effort, check out the industry’s first and only relationship-led marketplace, Buddy www.tradebuddy.io

Stuart Kagan

The global top 100 most Inspiring Recyclers was released today.

A massive thank you to Recycling International and Martijn Reintjes for putting me in the top 10.

A huge congrats to both my friends Paul Coyte and Bhavna Razdan for being named 1 and 2.

Everyone on the list is awesome and doing incredible things.

It's an absolute honor to be in such great company.

There are so many people doing great things.

Anyone you think is missing this year?

#MetalRecycling #ScrapMetal #Top100

The best life hack I ever found, was marrying someone way out of my league.

13 years I’ve now been married to this absolute legend.

People often think we’re crazy working together.

But we love building cool things with each other.

Of course there are going to be hard times.

But we work our way through them.

Because we have the same goal.

To help our boys become men.

And to grow old together.


Thanks Lisa Elly Kagan (Zaidel) for eventually giving-in and marying me!


To celebrate we spent the night on the town and this was the only picture I got 🤦

#Anniversary #ScrapCouple #Entrepreneurship

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Does your company answer the phone?

It’s accepted in our industry to miss calls.

“We’re so busy, we can’t be expected to answer every call.”

I’ve been told this so many times, it’s crazy.

Then why spend any money on marketing.

Landing a customer starts with awareness. 

Companies pay a lot on advertising for this.

But once they know about you, what next?

Obviously they call you and you answer. 

They may call for:

💰 Prices
🚛 Transport
⏰ Open times

If you miss a call you lose a customer.

In NZ we phoned every scrap yard.

None of them answered the phone. 

We knew how to have an edge.

Answer the damn phone.

It’s really that easy.

So why don’t you answer every calls?

#MetalRecycling #ScrapMetal #MissedCalls

If metals were people.

This is who they’d be.

After years working with metal.

I’ve started to see them as personalities.

So I tried something different.

I imagined what each grade would look like - as a person.

And here’s what came out 👇

Swipe through the 6 images and tell me:

Which one feels most accurate?

Or which one did i get wrong?

Drop your thoughts below! 👇

#MetalRecycling #ScrapMetal #MetalPersonalitiesyt

He’s been bitten by the bug. 

And we all know what that means.

He’s here to stay.

Chase Wymore joined Buddy a few months ago.

And is now visiting yards to get more involved.

Even in tech, the scrap metal bug will get ya.

I always warned everyone that joins us. 

Be careful… you may never leave.

It’s a real thing, that’s for sure.


Why is this a thing in our industry? 

How long fo you think it takes for someone to be hooked?


#MetalRecycling #ScrapMetal #ScrapForLife

Do you know what Tall Poppy Syndrome is?

Because there's a chance you may have it.

It's when you hope successful people fail.

It's not wanting anyone to be successful.

Everyone to be the same level as you.

Next time someone is celebrating.

Check how it makes you feel.

Are you happy for them.

Or you hope they fail.


When I see someone doing great things.

My immediate response is YES MAN!

Do you think there is only 1 winner?

We can literally all win in this life!

Celebrate others more often.

Do you cheer or jeer?

#Entrepreneurship #CelebrateOthers #TallPoppySyndrome

Before we started building Buddy.

Lisa Elly Kagan (Zaidel) spoke to 150 scrap metal recyclers.

This is not so easy to do.

It takes serious commit.

The findings were vital.

Here's what they said:

🤝  Relationships are everything
📩  There are way too many emails
🤨 Trust is hard earned on both sides
⌛  It takes too long to vet new buyers
🤑  Everybody wants more for their metal

Before these calls we didn't know what we were building.

Afterwards we knew exactly what the industry needed.

Even though I've been doing this for over 27 years.

Hearing it from everyone else was validating.

And it was the beginning of this journey.

To help operators out there.

Make more money.

And save time.

Safely!

Do you speak others before starting a project?

#MetalRecycling #ScrapMetal #Buddy

Pick your favourite cap.

At Buddy we love our merch.

Looking back at this incredible year.

Which of these caps was your favourite?  

Please comment the “name” of the cap you like the most. 

2026 is going to have even better merch. 

With your help, you’ll get what you want.

If you have pics of your Buddy cap in the wild, please add to the comments too.

#MetalRecycling #StayScrappy #MetalAF

Recycling metal before it was cool!

Entrepreneurs before it was sexy!

It started with the Grubbers.

Immigrants that needed to make money.

They found their opportunity in metal.

Finding old “junk” scrap to remove.

This was not an easy days work.

They worked harder than most.

And slowly but surely grew.

They started with nothing.

Grew into Billions.


These guys were real entrepreneurs.

Hustling just to make ends meet. 

Grinding to make an impact.

And boy did they ever!

Anyone made a bigger impact? 

#Entrepreneurship #MetalRecycling

Cash is king, they say!

In scrap metal recycling it’s more important than that.

We pay for the metal as we receive it.

We sort, process and load the metal.

For best prices we wait for payment.

Average cash turn is +- 45 days.

We can take the lower prices.

And get paid on packing. 

But in order to compete.

We need top prices.

So without cash.

No growth.


Trade finance is the best way to grow.

By borrowing against invoices.

You get money in fast.

And top prices.

But it’s risky.


Anyone else know a better way to manage this cash flow situation?

#MetalRecycling #ScrapMetal #TradeFinance

I’ve been working on something quietly.

For a few months now.


Scrap’s always been tough.

And the pressure stacks quickly.
No space between the hits.
Little time to recover.

In our world, resilience is everything.
It’s not about just bouncing back.
It’s about expecting the punch.
And planning accordingly.

That’s what Balls of Steel is about.

It’s not about me.
It’s about a new kind of resilience.

One that helps reduce surprises.
Make much sharper decisions.
And survive the next cycle.

The book is nearly done.
Now I need your help:
Which cover do you like best?

 1 or 2?

PS: See full blurb in the comments.

#MetalRecycling #ScrapMetal #BallsOfSteel

The yard of the future.

Fiction or an impending reality?

I had a very quick play with Gemini today.

Asked it to create a futuristic scrap yard.

Its interesting that you see no people.

Except maybe in the control centre.

Years ago I would've said fiction.

Now I totally believe its coming.

Maybe not in the next decade.

But it'll get there I believe.

What do you think?

Fiction or reality?

#MetalRecycling #ScrapMetal #FutureOfRecycling

Are tariffs good or bad for the metal recycling industry?

George Adams got up at the BIR - Bureau of International Recycling and made a great argument for why they are great for the USA.

Its real hard to to get everyone to agree in general, I get it.

When it comes to tariffs it seems a lot don't like them.

They made sense to me as I can see the benefit.

However, export controls I see how they can be terrible.

“If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.” — Margaret Fuller

So I would love to hear if you think they're good or bad and why?

Any actual impacts on you would be great too.

#Tariffs #MetalRecycling #KnowledgeShare

Buddy Lego Masters - Scrapyard Edition!

A few weeks ago we surprised the team with 2 Lego sets at their door.

We met online from different parts of the world.

We all raced to build the metal yard together.

Then we threw a curveball for the team.

Everyone opened their 2nd Lego set.

The challenge:

They had a week to create a scrap metal recycling scene using both sets.

Here’s what the other sets were:

🪄 Harry Potter
🛸 Star Wars
❄️ Frozen 
🧱 Minecraft

Extra points were given for the best images.

These were all physical builds presented.

Obviously some used AI for the images.

See the teams images below.

Which is your best? 

#MetalRecycling #ScrapMetal #LegoScrapYard

Buddy Lego Masters - Scrap yard edition 

If there's 1 thing I've instilled in my kids it's this!

Always be the hardest working person out there.

Whether they're on the field or in a classroom.

Its out of their control to always be the best.

But effort is 100% in everyone's control.

It may not get you noticed right away.

But its not about being #1 today.

It's about finishing on top!

Hustle wins every time!

If you weren't watching the game on Sunday.

This clip is from the end of the Eagles vs Cowboys game

Score was tied 24-24. Eagles had been up 21-0 in 2nd quarter.

This tackle won the Cowboys the game!

I was screaming at my kids... 

"Look at Clark never giving up! He just won the Cowboys the game!"

#Hustle #Entrepreneurship #NeverGiveUp

I used to always try get pricelists from other yards.

Beating their prices was the only arrow in my quiver.

I had to know what my competition was paying.

I do think it's important to know these prices.

But at the same time you need a strategy.

It shouldn't be only to outprice others.

If you want to win-over customers.

Try these 6 simple things:

- Manage expectations
- Service with a smile
- Over communicate
- Put up Wayfinding
- Answer the phone
- Keep a clean yard

Most of you think that you already do this.

In SA I had 85 yards, we didn't do this.

I've seen over 100 yards in the US.

Most of them don't do it either.

But in NZ we got it right.

So it is very doable!

And it pays off!

Have you got any of the 6 right?

#MetalRecycling #ScrapMetal #CustomerService

Unimetals

We founded Unimetals to develop, acquire, trade, partner with and operate metals recycling and processing businesses in the critical, energy transition and precious metals space.
 
We prioritize adding commercial value in order to optimize the recycling, processing, refining and delivery of metals and minerals, which are the essential building blocks of our society both today and as we transition towards a more sustainable future.
 
We promote a balanced supply between primary and secondary metal inputs therefore encouraging the development of the circular economy.

https://unimetals.com/

Co-Founder

Gemcorp Capital

Responsible for overseeing, developing and optimising the Groups cross commodity (incl. energy, ag's and metals) trade and structured finance business.

www.gemcorp.net

Partner & Managing Director

Gerald Group

Following the sale of RB Metalloyd, I undertook various roles during my 3 years at the Gerald Group incl, Head of structured trade finance for copper & ferrous metals and prior to this Commercial Director for Ferrous Metals. I was responsible for originating, structuring, financing and managing our long term and structured finance offtake deals working with executive management & heads of desk across our copper and ferrous metals portfolio.

Head of Structured Trade Finance - Copper & Ferrous

RB Metalloyd

Working closely with the shareholders (Reuben brothers) and managing director of the business on setting strategy for this physical steel and raw materials trading business, originating, executing and managing our larger / strategic transactions. Ultimately we sold this business in 2014 to Gerald Metals where the role continued.

Commercial Director

Ronly Ltd.

Commodities Trader at my family owned company; where I principally traded steel and raw materials products, set-up several new departments and redeveloped corporate processes, I had been involved with this company on and off since early childhood (where I gained my formative training in physical trading) and was ultimately involved in the sale of this business in Q3 2011.

Trader

Various

Early in my career, aside from informal work in trading - I undertook a number of short term and training assignments with various groups incl. Starwood group, HHP, Bank Leumi and Amalgamated Metals Trading prior to joining Ronly in a full time trading & business development role.

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