By even the most generous of assessments, it is a fantastically messy space, and entirely befitting of the fourth-generation family business co-owner who shares it with his 37-year-old son Josh. That is, when they are not out and about in their equally junky, yet impeccably well-organized, scrap metal yard.
In other words, there is big money to be made from all the things our rampant consumerism compels us to discard, including, say, that stainless steel dishwasher your neighbour just put out front.There is a good chance that dishwasher won’t stay put long enough for the city to pick it up.
Saul died of a heart attack at age 40, so Art’s father Leon stepped in to run the business. Eventually, his three sons joined him, but not before going to university and, in Art’s case, backpacking around Asia on a coming-of-age trek that partly explains the Hindi-themed trinkets such as the card-holding brass elephant that clutter his desk.Article content
For example, “Mikey,” one of the yard’s regulars, wants 60 cents a pound for his load of stainless steel. The younger Kaminsky won’t budge. “I’ll give you 55 cents.”Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post Being in constant motion is part of the joy of working in scrap. Art never wanted a desk job and he doesn’t have one now. The entire family bicycles to work, and they are diligent recyclers in their home lives. Art even takes his clothes to a seamstress near the yard for repairs. The Kaminskys know the value of the items other people throw out, as do their customers.