• The Road to Urbanmine

    Don Zieglgansberger from Estevan, Saskatchewan makes 40 trips a year to urbanmine hauling anywhere from one to four tons of scrap each trip. Don really likes our public readout scale.

“One of the things I like about urbanmine is the read-out scale. You can see it. They can’t move it back and forth. It’s electronic. That’s not true at all places. The first time I came here I weighed myself at home on my electronic scale and then I weighed on theirs. It was just a pound difference, but I’d had breakfast on my way up.”

—DON ZIEGLGANSBERGER, DON’S SALVAGE, ESTEVAN, SASKATCHEWAN
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“In the past, Champ Industries has had experiences with other metal recyclers where there were inconsistencies on the reporting of weights on either the trucks or the metals over the period of many years. This cost us tens of thousands of dollars over the years. Urbanmine on the other hand has demonstrated consistently their integrity and professionalism by being extremely open and transparent in these processes. And that’s very important to us.”

—LISE BAKER, GENERAL MANAGER, CHAMP INDUSTRIES
Meet Lise and learn how to be a lean manufacturer >

“Adam and Mark made it easy for us to switch from where we were selling our scrap metal, to bring it to urbanmine. Once we got to know them we could see the integrity in everything they said and did. We also like how concerned they are about the environment. Urbanmine was a good alternative for us.”

—LYNDON FINNEY, CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, CANADIAN TOOL AND DIE

“Urbanmine’s facility is big enough to handle our products. They were very competitive and got our business. To this day it continues to be a strong professional relationship. The urbanmine staff goes out of its way to accommodate us. We’ve been very impressed with their employees. They’re always pleasant, cheerful and cordial to deal with. The way they operate their business I personally would love to work there if I was in need of a job. It’s clean, bright and it’s not what you would expect from a salvage yard. Even the yard outside is organized.”

—BARRY FRASER, PRODUCTION MANAGER, IMPERIAL STEEL PRODUCTS

“When urbanmine first approached us with the idea to turn old cars into cash to build homes for Habitat for Humanity we knew it had great potential. We are an environmentally sustainable organization on several levels and it was a perfect fit for us. The program urbanmine created gets old cars off the street and reduces emissions; it sells the metal and the cash helps us build sustainable homes; and the person who donated the car gets a charitable receipt.”

—SANDY HOPKINS, CEO, HABITAT FOR HUMANITY, MANITOBA
Meet Sandy and see the launch of Old Parts New Starts >

“I started talking to urbanmine about what we were doing to create jobs for people with disabilities and they were very supportive right off the bat. We’ve now developed an excellent partnership. They appreciate the quality of work we do and we appreciate the good price we get at urbanmine when we help recycle materials. And together we save the planet every day.”

— TILMAN GOETTING, EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES WEST
Meet Tilman and his staff at Equal Opportunities West >

“When I walked into the office I thought, ‘I’m walking into a software company with sleek furniture, beautiful clean precise lines, brand new.’ I thought, ‘This is a scrap yard?’…. He (Mark Chisick) said ‘this is deliberate because we’re a different kind of business’ and urbanmine … typifies the way they think of it.”

—TERRY MACLEOD, CBC RADIO MANITOBA, BROADCAST OCTOBER 2009
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“Adam Chisick has adopted the wisdom of his grandfather’s time and retooled it for his socially conscious generation. With his father and grandfather behind him, he’s turned the family junk business of the 1900s, founded in north end Winnipeg, into “urbanmining” today, with a metal recycling warehouse, in the south end of Winnipeg. Today, urbanmine clients range from backlane ‘urbanminers’; to a LEED green builder who recycles on construction sites, to ‘lean’ manufacturers who are looking to be efficient in their operations.”

—RECYCLING PRODUCT NEWS, PUBLISHED OCTOBER 2009
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“The volume of e-waste dropped off at Manitoba depots this year is more than double the amount collected during the same time frame last year….‘The volumes have definitely been increasing,’ said Adam Chisick, marketing relations head for urbanmine. Urbanmine held a collection day with Investors Group before the provincial round up began – and vehicles lined up around the block for the event. ‘I think those things have definitely helped to make people aware that these programs are available,” Chisick said.

—WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, JUNE 2009

  • The Road to Urbanmine

    Don Zieglgansberger from Estevan, Saskatchewan makes 40 trips a year to urbanmine hauling anywhere from one to four tons of scrap each trip. Don really likes our public readout scale.

  • A-lu-mi-num Jingle

  • Dead Car, Good Deed

    Old Parts New Starts gets polluting cars off the road. Turns them into cash donations.

“I like the read-out scale. You can see it.”

— Don Zieglgansberger

Don's Salvage, Estevan, Saskatchewan

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“Extremely open and transparent.”

— Lise Baker

General Manager, Champ Industries

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“Concerned about the environment.”

— Lyndon Finney

Chief Financial Officer, Canadian Tool and Die

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“Big enough to handle our products.”

— Barry Fraser

Production Manager, Imperial Steel Products

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“Beautiful, clean... This is a scrap yard?”

— Terry MacLeod

CBC Radio Manitoba, Broadcast October 2009

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