Transforming Scrap into Gold: David Fulton on DEF Recycling's Journey and Community Impact
May 31, 2024
Co-hosted by John Noblitt and Donna Green
What if a simple scrapyard could transform into a thriving business that uplifts an entire community? Join us as we welcome David Fulton, the driving force behind DEF Recycling, and uncover the remarkable 38-year journey that took him from working in his father's scrapyard to becoming a pivotal figure in Sanger's metal recycling industry. David's story is a testament to the power of family businesses and the significant economic impact of the scrap industry on local economies. Learn why DEF Recycling focuses solely on metals and avoids plastics and newspapers, and discover where these recycled materials go, including steel mills and foundries in nearby towns like Melothian and Durant.
But that's not all—this episode also dives into the cutting-edge advancements in recycling technology, such as sorting plastics by color, and the exciting implications these innovations have for job creation and community involvement. Hear firsthand from David about his motivations for sponsoring local events like Freedom Fest and Sanger Cleanup Days and how these initiatives foster a sense of community and promote recycling awareness. We’ll also share our fascinating visit to DEF Recycling, highlighting the impressive equipment, and discuss the potential for school visits to inspire the next generation. Tune in to celebrate the industrious spirit of North Texas and discover how one man's vision is making a lasting impact.
You have been listening to The 266 Express, the official podcast of Sanger, TX. IF you have comments or suggestions, please send them to dgreen@sangertexas.org
What if a simple scrapyard could transform into a thriving business that uplifts an entire community? Join us as we welcome David Fulton, the driving force behind DEF Recycling, and uncover the remarkable 38-year journey that took him from working in his father's scrapyard to becoming a pivotal figure in Sanger's metal recycling industry. David's story is a testament to the power of family businesses and the significant economic impact of the scrap industry on local economies. Learn why DEF Recycling focuses solely on metals and avoids plastics and newspapers, and discover where these recycled materials go, including steel mills and foundries in nearby towns like Melothian and Durant.
But that's not all—this episode also dives into the cutting-edge advancements in recycling technology, such as sorting plastics by color, and the exciting implications these innovations have for job creation and community involvement. Hear firsthand from David about his motivations for sponsoring local events like Freedom Fest and Sanger Cleanup Days and how these initiatives foster a sense of community and promote recycling awareness. We’ll also share our fascinating visit to DEF Recycling, highlighting the impressive equipment, and discuss the potential for school visits to inspire the next generation. Tune in to celebrate the industrious spirit of North Texas and discover how one man's vision is making a lasting impact.
You have been listening to The 266 Express, the official podcast of Sanger, TX. IF you have comments or suggestions, please send them to dgreen@sangertexas.org
John Noblitt:
Welcome to the 266 Express. I'm John Noblet, here with my co-host, donna Green, donna, who we got Today we have David Fulton.
Donna Green:
He is the owner of DEF Recycling and he's also the sponsor for our annual Freedom Fest.
John Noblitt:
Freedom Fest Now that's coming up soon, right End of this month, June.
Donna Green:
Yeah, end of June, yes, June.
John Noblitt:
David, thank you so much. We appreciate you. We appreciate that sponsorship. Tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, how, long you been in Sanger.
David Fulton:
I came to Sanger after I graduated the one and only Denton Bronco High Moved out here September of 86. I've been here 38 years. Oh wow, Watch Sanger change a lot Not so much in the first 15 years, but it's really changed a lot in the last 20 years.
John Noblitt:
Yeah, we were just talking a little bit about that before the podcast that the dynamics are really moving now.
David Fulton:
Ever since the Walmart distribution came in. That's when the change started.
John Noblitt:
Yeah.
David Fulton:
I think it was 2001.
John Noblitt:
Yeah, it's been a while. It's been a while yeah.
Donna Green:
So, Davis, tell us about the journey of DEF and that's your metal recycling company, and then just tell us from inception to where you are now. How'd you get here?
David Fulton:
Well, I grew up in the scrap manor, working alongside my dad his scrap yard in Denton, and since I was 10 years old, so I've been doing it over 40 years and it's just, it gets in your blood and it's just like second nature. So that's all you know and that's why I'm still here, and so I had a chance to open a yard on my own after my dad passed, and so that's where we are today, and it's really remarkable how it's grown over the last five years.
John Noblitt:
Yeah, my dad owned his own business, so you know family businesses can be difficult. I'm surprised you made it, because my dad fired me like 37 times, 38 times. Is it kind of the same experience? Well, I was.
David Fulton:
I guess I was more of the. It's exactly the same experience, but I was the slave laborer and the one I when the phone rang. He was calling to get this done or get that done. So, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about.
John Noblitt:
But it is nice to have generational businesses like that. I mean, those are really important to what we do. What cities do for the economy of both the cities that you guys operate in, as well as the cities that you guys operate in and as well as the regions that you guys operate in. I don't know. I don't know that everybody really understands, and I don't to a large degree, how that scrap industry impacts. You know the economics of a community.
David Fulton:
Oh, it's, you talk about the local, but of course, me being in this business for so long, I know people from the Gulf Coast to Canada, from the. East Coast to West Coast and you never know who is going to call to need something or need something done with some problem or somewhere in some load or something, and you just never know who's going to call and you never know what's going to drive in the gate.
John Noblitt:
Yeah, yeah, I can only imagine, I can only imagine.
Donna Green:
So tell us, david, I know you work commercial with like TxDOT and with the city, of course, but what about residential people? What's recyclable? What do you take? What about residential people? What's recyclable, what do you take?
David Fulton:
Well, in our metal recycling we tell everybody anything metal and plastic and newspaper there's a lot of newspaper recycling in and around North Texas and it's rarely available.
David Fulton:
We don't do it because of the fire hazard, because it involves so much more. You've got to have a sprinkler system, you've got to have just a whole other set of fire codes, and so plastic recycling is a little more. It's picking up speed but since COVID it really diminished some, but it's picking up more speed again. But plastic is recyclable. We just don't do it because it's a whole nother like a whole nother extension and we just never have done it. But we take anything metal, no fluids or gases like Freon or fluids like gasoline, oil, water. You know you buy a water heater, you don't buy 50 gallons of water.
John Noblitt:
Yeah.
David Fulton:
So, but yeah, anything metal. So we buy whole cars with a title, stuff like that fluids drained and anything from beer cans to the trampoline that gets messed up in a storm.
Donna Green:
Then what happens to all that metal? Because I've been out to your yard and I've seen very, very neat. He has a very neat. Very clean, very clean, very organized, and you've got all these different piles and you've got the rebar from all the road construction and you've got all this stuff, piles and like the rebar from all the road construction, and you've got all this stuff. What happens to all that? Where does it go?
David Fulton:
Well, a big misconception. A lot of people think everything we do, everything goes to China. Actually, china hasn't bought much ferrous ferrous being your steels out of the United States. In probably seven, eight years more of our steel gets bought up by Turkey, but all of our steel that we do as a DEF goes here within about 100 miles. We sell to a steel mill in Melothian, a steel mill in Durant, there's a steel mill in Medill, oklahoma, and there's a foundry in Ardmore. So that's our four primary and we sell to all of them and they all have different specifications. And when somebody says, well, you have this, well, you have to put this over there because this meal will take this but that meal won't. So I try to teach all my guys. It's like making a cake you have to blend everything because you don't want an all-flour cake or an all-sugar cake. And it's the same thing with scrap you have to blend as you process it so the meal will accept it. Oh, wow.
John Noblitt:
Oh, wow. Yeah, Now you know there's a lot of challenges in a lot of businesses. Yours is one that recycling just in general. We just know on our side there's so many different regulations. Has the regulatory environment changed for you guys quite a bit?
David Fulton:
Not so much on the. Yeah, you go back to the 80s. The EPA made batteries hazardous waste. But what happened then? We're not hazardous waste people. So all the scrap dealers across the United States quit mining. Well, what happened then? People threw them in the ditch. So then they came back and said, oh well, they're not a hazardous waste and you could buy them again.
David Fulton:
So, yeah, they fixed that, but they do mistakes like that. But the biggest change has come due to the theft, and so we're regulated by the Texas Department of Public Safety, right, and we have to do reporting of copper, brass, aluminum Batteries got added to that because they started stealing so many batteries out of construction equipment and different things. So you have to have a valid ID for all that stuff and we have to report it to the DPS. And, matter of fact, we just had a call from Oklahoma City. From Oklahoma City, in the metro of Oklahoma City, they actually found a guy that we had bought some stuff from and it was stolen from a TV station. Oh wow.
Donna Green:
Oh, wow. But it was his third time to steal it, and they'd already locked him up, they laid him out of jail and he stole it again, stole it again and he came across state lines to Gainesville Boy.
John Noblitt:
they probably need to do a little something with the station there, but security.
David Fulton:
So you know that's the biggest difference in regulation is being they actually come out and audit our records and check our cameras. Yeah, we have to fingerprint, we have to get your picture drive license, take a picture of the person themselves. So that's the biggest change there as far as regulations go Right. But we do all of the stormwatering permits and we have to keep a clean house, in a sense because you don't want to be polluting the waterways, right?
John Noblitt:
I mean you said something there about the batteries and some other things. I mean it seems like that business is a very important part of the supply chain process. I mean we always talk about being consumers and grabbing goods, but we don't always talk about the best way to dispose of those goods and get some of those raw materials back into the system for new products and services.
David Fulton:
Well, and you mentioned that, and that goes back to why, when my dad was in business and didn't, and they didn't have their own landfill, denton has their own landfill and I remember back when I was a kid that the amount of tin, the metal tin we come in it would have closed the Denton landfill years ago, because what else are you going to do with it? So that's the purpose. You know we've been in the scrap business, we're the original recyclers. We started doing it years and years and years ago, before anybody thought about recycling.
John Noblitt:
Right.
David Fulton:
But we've always been doing it, and so now it's, you know, really picked up momentum and picked up speed. So you know we're a throwaway society now, and so we buy and throw it away. And so that's what we do is we recycle dishwashers, washers and dryers. They go out, you throw them away, but we buy them in the scrap metal.
Donna Green:
Yeah, wow. So how do you see the future of metal recycling evolving? What do you think's next on the horizon or what's going to change?
David Fulton:
Well, it's gonna get more automated, but I know that because the labor issue is a big deal. As everyone knows, there's no qualified people out there and you have to have some qualified people to run this high technology equipment and I don't know where it'll go. But it will definitely follow suit with all the other technology. There is some amazing stuff out there. There will probably be automated running cranes and material handlers and stuff like that.
David Fulton:
We already have a remote-controlled shear, so that's one less operator you have to have, right, and I see a lot more of that coming. It's just, you know, we already have technology on the shredder side that as the shredder, for instance, a car, you shred a car or a washer or a dryer, and the shredder's purpose is to shred the material, separate it by ferrous, non-ferrous, and then it has different conveyors and some of them use air and they separate the trash and the plastic. And now they have the technology to separate the plastics by color on the back end, to sort out the plastics, to recycle the plastics, and that's just amazing technology to watch that.
John Noblitt:
That's incredible.
David Fulton:
Very, very expensive, but that's where it will be going.
John Noblitt:
Yeah, hopefully the cost of that will come down, but it also poses the problem for a lot of people out of work I'm like I'm not hard labor anymore when I'm in my younger days I was, but I'm starting to get concerned at this point yeah because I'm easily.
David Fulton:
Yeah, there's.
John Noblitt:
There's so many new jobs of anything you want to do out there, really, if you just put your mind to it, though, yeah yeah, and you know a lot of programs out there and a lot of programs that require support, which you know gets us back to really you know your involvement in what you do here. I mean, you have been a big sponsor of Freedom Fest. You're a big sponsor of the Old Bolivar Station Songwriter Festival, the Sanger Cleanup Days. I was in Gainesville where you own a business as well. You're involved in Gainesville and some of the things they do. What motivates you to be involved at the level you are? Because some people will sponsor an event or two but you really put your money where your mouth is, so to speak, on helping make these programs successful.
David Fulton:
Well, the city trash haul has been going on what 15, 18 years probably. So we got involved in that a long time ago and have always continued to do that and have always continued to do that. And I take pride in that because you know it's what we do and not trash but the metal side of it, and we just, you know, want to help people clean up. And that goes back to what you're saying. Who can recycle? Anybody can recycle. It doesn't have to be a business or anything. But the city cleanup is one part that people can get out on the weekend or save up for that weekend and clean up. And that goes into, you know, expanding and saying you know I want to help out all I can to help the people of Sanger and know all they can about recycling and where to go.
John Noblitt:
Yeah, which is good, because a lot of people don't know. I mean, you know, you see it all the time Somebody will throw a washing machine on the curb because they don't know where else to put it. Yeah, they don't know where to go.
David Fulton:
Or maybe they just don't want to mess with it.
John Noblitt:
Right.
David Fulton:
And that comes to something else, because you know, as far as everybody recycling, not everybody's going to recycle You're only going to get about half the people recycling. In my opinion, which is what my business is is about half commercial, half, you know, peddler traffic, right.
Donna Green:
So Well, things like the trash off. That makes it convenient, so it encourages people who normally wouldn't recycle to. Actually, you know that's a good opportunity to be able to do that. So that's how I appreciate the partnership. It works out really great for Sanger, for sure. So let's see, For sure. So let's see. Do you engage with your local schools or educational institutions to promote recycling? Do you do any kind of education?
David Fulton:
Well, we have some in the past not very much, but we have some our trade organization, isri, and just got renamed Recycles Material Association. They do offer some stuff that we can print out and pass out to help the schools educate.
David Fulton:
But we have in the past gone and had some kindergartens and stuff come out on tour of the yards and see how it works, because when you get to see it in person that's when it really hits home how it all works. Yeah, because you know. When you mentioned about, you know where does it go. Well, you buy it, process it. Processing could be cutting, shearing, torching, baling. You all have to separate it by what mill is going to buy what, whether it be aluminum or steel. Then you package it and load it on trucks and then ship it out. So they get to see all that firsthand and it's really something to see if you've never seen it.
Donna Green:
It's exciting for them.
John Noblitt:
Yeah, it's an interesting process, for sure.
David Fulton:
For instance, right now we have quite a mountain of rebar from the I-35 project going on in Cook County which is getting ready to start and getting ready. People don't know Get ready. Since last July I looked before I came here We've picked up 276 box loads of rebar from north of Valley View to Gainesville, 1,380 tons of rebar.
David Fulton:
Oh wow, wow. That's a lot and right now we've probably got close to 500 tons in the yard. It's a mountain and it's so labor-intensive because most of the steel mills all the steel mills don't like rebar. But they make it, but when they go back to recycle it it's very. It gets tangled and you have to. There's a lot of work on getting it cut down. Most of them don't buy it unless it's two foot or shorter. Yeah, and it's very labor intensive to get it that short.
Donna Green:
Does it come in with a concrete on it still?
David Fulton:
Well, it'll have a little bit of concrete, but they have a pretty good way of busting the concrete off, and so it's essentially concrete free, but you'll get some balls of concrete here and there.
Donna Green:
And you have to. I mean because that rebar we've seen a lot of road construction. You can see how long those are, so that is a lot of cutting. Is that a machine that does all that?
David Fulton:
Yeah, it's a sticks-tooth machine, Tooth machine. We have to cut it apart with tooth machines.
John Noblitt:
So usually due to weight does that usually have to go out on rail?
David Fulton:
No, With the steel mills close by, we can put it on truck, truck it over, yeah.
John Noblitt:
That's pretty. I'm interested too, you know, because I didn't realize how many working foundries are still in this area, you know.
David Fulton:
Well, the one in Durant just opened in 2017, brand-new $300 million steel mill, believe it or not, yeah, you know. That's good, and they're talking about building another one in East Texas.
John Noblitt:
East Texas. Yeah, yeah, I mean it is again. I think, as people become more aware of these things, maybe that helps. People are becoming so environmentally conscious now than they have been in the past, but it's thanks to efforts like yours.
David Fulton:
Well, it is the wave of the past and the wave of the future. You've got to reuse the wave of the past and the wave of the future. You got to reuse. And you know, there's statistics out there that show how much steel but but most of the steel mills it's getting on towards 80% of the steel mills in the United States use recycled steel, yeah, it's a finite resource, right yeah.
David Fulton:
Yeah, there's only so much, and at the current time there's a way oversupply and a lot of the steel mills are busting at the seams as we go into June. They don't have a very big buy program because some of us blame it on election year. Things have slowed down inflation what it is, and their sales on the other end aren't very good and so they're full, which drives scrap prices down even to the point that two mills at this very moment are not buying anything, which is not good because we have to keep buying from the public. But they may not understand why the price is so cheap, but we have no place to go with it right now.
John Noblitt:
Yeah, and we see that. We see that on the other end of the supply chain now, right now, we have tremendous problems with the road work and electrical work and those things that we're doing, because getting a hold of that stuff, the lead times now are just outrageous.
John Noblitt:
So, it all impacts that. So tell us, david, where are people going to find you? I know you have several locations. How do they get a hold of you If they're sitting at home listening to this now and they go? Hey, I never thought about taking this to the scrapyard. Where do they take it?
David Fulton:
Well, we're in Gainesville, there, right off the interstate, exit 499, off I-35 north of 82, go half a mile and we have an entrance right there off the interstate, and then we also have another entrance off North Weaver. It comes in both sides, and one thing I did when I started my own was I know the working folks have to work, so we're open on Saturdays to accommodate the people that have to work during the week, and so we're one of the only yards I know of in North Texas that are open on Saturdays.
John Noblitt:
Yeah, what are those hours on Saturday?
David Fulton:
7.30 to 12.
John Noblitt:
7.30 to 12.
Donna Green:
I have a question. This is maybe totally off topic, but you talk about batteries and we talk about electric cars today and lithium batteries. Is there anything in the future that you know of where they're going to be able to recycle or do anything with lithium batteries?
David Fulton:
You know, I'm glad you bring that up because everybody thinks electric's great and blah, blah, blah. But as of this current time? So we were accused of shipping a lithium battery. Well, let me back up, it was a nickel cadmium battery. Well, let me back up, it was a nickel cadmium battery. Bmw makes some apparently that look just like a car battery and they claim they found one of our loads and they fined us for it. Because if you get a nickel cadmium battery and a load of lead acid batteries and it gets in because the process they actually shred batteries to recover the lead, if they shred a nickel-cadmium battery explodes automatically and it tears all their equipment up. So they really have to police that and watch it. But at this current time I don't know anybody that takes lithium batteries. They're a hazard. I mean, look at what it takes to make one.
John Noblitt:
Oh yeah.
David Fulton:
I don't think that's the best source or the future, because lead is naturally mined and you just mine it and make lead. It's kind of like steel. You mine iron ore, you mine for aluminum and it's a big process. It takes a lot of energy but recycling reduces that, same as lead acid batteries. But it takes so much to make a lithium battery that I don't know of anybody buying any. So when the electric cars come along, which they're already out there, we have not bought any, but I don't know what you do with the batteries.
Donna Green:
Because I know you'll see online where there's these seas of electric cars. Because the battery is the most expensive part.
David Fulton:
That's right.
Donna Green:
And so, instead of replacing a battery, they just go get another car. That's right, and so they, instead of replacing a battery, they just go get another car. That's right so hopefully there's something in the future to where we can do something with.
David Fulton:
Well, it was kind of like they got the cart before the horse on that, if you ask me.
Donna Green:
Yeah, yeah, awesome Yep so.
David Fulton:
But going back to the Freedom Fest, one reason I wanted to sponsor that is because and I'm certainly glad I did last year after what happened to Denton's fireworks show, I grew up going to North Texas Fouts Field, as everybody did, and sitting down and watching a great fireworks show.
David Fulton:
And when I found out Sanger was going to do one, I said I want to help out because I grew up watching the fireworks show and just a good fireworks show means a lot to me. And then I found out Denton went to a drone show and then after the wind came in last year and they had to cancel, I thought well, there's no boom.
Donna Green:
Don't we admit the boom?
John Noblitt:
I keep threatening Donna with drones.
Donna Green:
I love to watch her face. Gotta have the boom. Gotta have the boom. We certainly appreciate your sponsorship and once again, you're our headlining sponsor, our title sponsor this year, and I certainly appreciate it. We have a great event planned this year. We've got the Bellamy Brothers coming.
David Fulton:
I'm looking forward to it and if we can keep the heat turned down.
Donna Green:
I put in the order Okay, so we'll see if he listens this year. He listened last year.
John Noblitt:
He did. I don't know if I could do you a favor. He did a great job last year.
Donna Green:
But, hopefully.
David Fulton:
Yeah, the Bellamy brothers should bring in a big crowd this year, so I'm excited, very, very excited. I'm looking forward to it and it should be a great evening.
John Noblitt:
Yeah, definitely we appreciate you helping make that happen. You know, because, again, it takes a lot of people to make that thing happen and it takes a lot of resources. We appreciate you and what you do and what your company does. Is there any message that you'd want to give the community about either recycling or about being involved in your community.
David Fulton:
Well, as far as recycling, it's not as hard as you think. You can always set aside a corner of your yard or garage or kitchen or something to keep your cans and your newspapers and stuff like that, or even your medals. And as far as getting involved with the community just every few minutes you got the time, go volunteer somewhere. I mean there's opportunities.
Donna Green:
We have lots of opportunities.
John Noblitt:
Tons of opportunities. Love where you live, right. Yes, absolutely.
Donna Green:
Thank you so much for coming in and joining us today. I appreciate your time and learning more about your business. Again, I've been out there. It's an amazing. I had no idea, so he took me out and drove me through and it's a lot of expensive equipment to do what you do, but it was very exciting. So hopefully we can maybe get the kids back out there. I think, if you're willing to do that, we should push the schools to take them out there.
John Noblitt:
They'd love that, david. Thank you sir.
Donna Green:
We do appreciate it.
John Noblitt:
You've been listening to the 266 Express. I'm John Knoblet. I'm Donna.
Donna Green:
Green.
John Noblitt:
Thanks for listening in to what's going on in our small little North Texas town.
