Photo by Will Kirk
Scrap metal
Scrap metal from United Iron & Metal
In the 1930s they could still be seen on Milwaukee streets, the rag men with their horse-drawn carts, calling out for bottles and bones, tin cans and discarded clothes, trading pennies for junk. It was hard work that fell to immigrants, mostly to Jews who arrived in number from Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Their labor and the industries that grew from it is the subject of a new exhibition at the Jewish Museum Milwaukee.
“Scarp Yard: Inventors of Recycling” tells a story of men who—in some cases—turned rags into riches by selling and processing “junk” on a larger scale. Chudnow Iron & Metal and Miller Compressing (now owned by Alter Trading Corp.) are among the most familiar names locally. According to the leading trade association, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, 12 scrap yards are still operating in Milwaukee. Originally organized by the Jewish Museum of Maryland, the Milwaukee “Scrap Yard” exhibit is infused with Wisconsin names and faces by the Jewish Museum Milwaukee’s education director Ellie Gettinger, curator Molly Dubin and archives director Jay Hyland.
Although not every rag or “junk man” was Jewish, the work largely fell to Jews because of the era’s pervasive anti-Semitism. Gettinger explains that while other immigrants easily found factory work in America’s booming factories, Jews found that many factory managers refused to hire them. “There were very few opportunities for them. As ‘junk men,’ they could create their own jobs and make them their own,” Dubin adds.
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As the successful scrap collectors earned money from their trade, they bought trucks to replace carts and before long purchased their own scrap yards. “While there was a fortune to be made, it was never easy work,” Gettinger says. Along with long hours and heavy lifting came a problem of social perception. Being a “Junk man,” not unlike a “garbage man,” was looked at by many people as a lower, even dirty occupation.
Attitudes changed. Gathering scrap became a patriotic duty during World War II as junk dealers supplied America’s “Arsenal of Democracy” with raw material. The exhibit includes a wartime poster, Junk Rains Down on Axis, depicting Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini cowering under a Bosch-like profusion of metallic debris after old bicycle parts became bombs. As stated on one of the exhibit’s text panels, “junk men” became “scrap processors” and later, “recyclers” on the road to “sensible sustainability.”
The Milwaukee rag men of a century ago fed the city’s machine shops and factories. Nowadays recycling is a global industry. One of “Scrap Yard’s” panels illustrates the flow of discarded material out of the U.S. The panel states that $9 billion in “non-ferrous” (non-iron) junk is exported annually to 85 countries.
“Scrap Yard” includes video stations showing scrap yards in action with electromagnetic cranes moving tons of metal and mega-shredders breaking apart and sorting an automobile in seconds. Displayed next to a motor bike is that bike’s parts—the wheels, sprockets and gears that are a treasure trove for a scrap dealer. Interactive elements include a stand-on scale, revealing the “value of your weight in different scrap materials.”
“Junk” can be a resource but it’s also a growing problem with mountains of discarded computers, cellphones and other devices. Among “Scrap Yard’s” many lectures and workshops is the “Community Recycling Day.” NJT Automation will be at the museum noon-4 p.m. on Oct. 31 to take apart your old devices and recycle the parts. The Dec. 15 “Recycle for Good Virtual Workshop” will teach the importance of rinsing recyclables. “Scrap Yard” isn’t only a history lesson but aspires to be a guidepost for the future. Recycling, done properly, might be one way to sustain our civilization.
“Scrap Yard: Innovators of Recycling” runs Oct. 8-Jan. 30 at the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, 1360 N. Prospect Ave. For more information, visit jewishmuseummilwaukee.org.
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Photo by Jeffrey G. Katz
Grappling Claw
A grappling claw stacks scrapped automobiles, Gershow Recycling Company, Long Island, NY, 2017
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Image courtesy of University of Minnesota Libraries, Upper Midwest Literary Archives
Dig In - WW2 poster
WWII Poster: “Dig In and Dig Out the Scrap” World War II scrap poster, c.1945
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Photo courtesy of Arnie Peltz
Joe Peltz - Peltz Bros. Waste
Joseph Peltz, co-founder of Peltz Bros. Waste Material Co., ca. 1960
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Photo courtesy of Alter Trading Corporation
Miller Compressing
Miller Compressing yard and crane, undated.
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Photo by Cassie A. Sacotte
Aluminum cans
Crushed, baled aluminum cans, Alter Trading Corporation, Milwaukee, WI, 2021
