Michael Brothers shows its mettle in recycling
Rick Shrum/For the Observer-Reporter
“The Red Building” is the focal point of Michael Brothers’ operation in Baldwin, where consumers can drop off recyclables in dumpsters outdoors or in a drive-through area.
Rick Shrum/For the Observer-Reporter
Michael Brothers purchased land in Baldwin that enabled it to expand beyond its original building, hidden from view at what is now the back of the property.
Rick Shrum/For the Observer-Reporter
Not all dumpsters are large and metallic. Disposable dumpsters serve a valuable service as well.
Rick Shrum/For the Observer-Reporter
Bales of crushed cardboard, left, and plastics sit at the Baldwin location en route to being recycled for use.
Photos: Rick Shrum/For the Observer-Reporter
Tom Melani, left, Virgil Richmond and Boyd Jones – in front of bales of crushed plastic and cardboard at the Baldwin location – are among the leaders of Michael Brothers Cos.
Courtesy of Michael Brothers
A birds-eye view of the Michael Brothers operation
Boyd Jones is an experienced manager with Michael Brothers Companies. Yet recycling, waste hauling and other aspects of his job still wow him.
“We crush glass here – all colors,” said Jones, business support manager for the Baldwin Borough-based waste management firm. Reflecting upon a video, “Faces of Glass,” Jones rhapsodized about how shattered glass, once trash, can be converted into a treasure.
“You can turn it into a bottle in 30 days. That’s just amazing.”
That video, courtesy of the Pennsylvania Resources Council, an environmental nonprofit, neatly summarizes the evolution of Michael Brothers as well. The company started as a garbage hauler a half-century ago before transforming into a recycling operation, which breathes new life into materials that had been pitched.
Michael Brothers operates four Southwestern Pennsylvania locations with a collective 100-plus employees. The original and primary site is at 901 Horning Road in Baldwin, near the Bethel Park line. The company’s services include dumpster delivery (three styles, 18 sizes), waste transfer stations and its signature undertaking: recycling. The firm recycles scrap metals (all grades); plastics (1 and 2 in one bin, 3 through 7 in another); glass and cardboard.
Horning Road is a distinctive site as well, featuring “The Red Building” at the front of the property. It also is the company’s southernmost location, which serves residents and businesses in the South Hills and Washington, Greene and Fayette counties. Michael Brothers also has a presence in Reserve Township (North Hills), Adamsburg (Westmoreland County) and Mt. Pleasant (also Westmoreland). The latter two opened, respectively, in 2020 and 2022.
Having four sites enables the company to deploy them in a complementary manner. Jones, a Peters Township resident, said Michael Brothers crushes glass at the Baldwin and Reserve sites and can transport 18 to 20 tons of it to Mt. Pleasant, then pick up scrap metal at Mt. Pleasant and bring it to Baldwin.
The Baldwin operation, according to the company, also is the first C&D materials recovery facility in the Pittsburgh area. A so-called C&D mrf is a facility where waste stream materials are processed and separated mechanically and manually.
“We plan to have the second and third too,” Jones said.
Local residents are not charged for submitting glass and cardboard, and are paid for the scrap metal they bring in via a drive-through area near the middle of The Red Building.
Plastics and cardboard are placed in balers, which compress those recyclables into large, tight squares that are transported to buyers where they are processed and gain a new purpose.
The Milani family has run this business for 47 of its 50 years, and kept the surname of the original owners. Tom Milani, of Peters, is the current CEO of a business that, he said, “always has 100 things going on. Dad started with garbage and moved to recycling.”
As a young man, his father, Steve, started to drive a garbage truck for Jack and Harry Michael in 1973. Steve worked diligently for them for three years, when the brothers decided to retire and sell the business to him. He built it up before transitioning to recycling.
“But it’s not just recycling,” Tom said. “We’re making a product. We like to brag a little.” It was a wow moment for the boss as well.
Milani, Jones and facilities manager Virgil Richmond escorted a guest on an outside tour there, showing bales of recyclables, a massive tent building, heavy machinery, trucks and other operations. Considering all of the activity, all of the traffic and the large scope of operations, the property is amazingly clean and orderly. That is paramount for a waste management service on the edge of a residential neighborhood.
Michael Brothers has been in a celebratory mode over the past year. Crowding inside The Red Building was alleviated in December when the company moved its office operations to the former Bloom Engineering Building, a short distance to the east on Horning Road.
More recently, the firm toasted 50 years in business with a dinner at Helltown Taproom in Houston. Michael Brothers had other anniversary-related events and developed a 50-year logo – commemorating a lot of wow moments.