Metal Wonderland: McCoy's Iron & Metal

But McCoy’s is also a place of rebirth as employees sort and bundle the various metals and ship them off to mills and smelters to eventually become new appliances, new tin cans and new copper wiring.

It’s a bustling business, especially since scrap metal prices started surging worldwide over the past few years, driving more people to deliver metal to the Springfield scrap yard.

“The last few years, there really hasn’t been a slow time,” says Sharon McCoy, who owns McCoy’s with her husband, Michael.

Not that long ago, business typically calmed down as the weather grew colder in January and February, but these days, scrap metal collectors like David Dixon keep McCoy’s booming year-round.

“I’m here every day,” says Dixon, after dropping off two old cars at the scrap yard.

Strong industry

The McCoys buy scrap metal, processes it and then sells it at a higher price to mills and smelters.

Collector Dixon first learned about the scrap metal business when he was a teenager, working for a full-time scrap collector. About a year ago, the 31-year-old started collecting scrap as a part-time venture, driven in large part by environmental benefits.

“I just want to clean up, recycle, make it a better world,” the Bolivar resident says.

Then six months ago, he started scrap collecting full-time and founded his own business – Dixon’s Recycling. That was possible thanks in large part to record scrap metal prices and the ubiquity of the product.

“There’s so much out there,” Dixon says. “And the prices don’t hurt.”

Those prices probably won’t drop anytime soon, says Tom Wyrick, a Missouri State University economics professor.

“What most people are … explaining it by is China’s growth in the world economy,” Wyrick said.

And since China and the rest of Asia are likely to keep growing for decades to come, the worldwide need for raw and recycled materials will likely stay high – which means McCoy’s will probably stay busy. And that, of course, is good news for the McCoy family.

Scrappy success

Before venturing into the scrap metal trade, Sharon McCoy had worked at Zenith but was laid off as the plant slowly scaled back its work force before closing. Michael McCoy delivered nuts and chips to grocery stores for Guy’s Foods but wanted to own his own business.

He knew the scrap metal trade because his father and two of his brothers were in scrap metal in other parts of Missouri. In 1990, Sharon and Michael McCoy opened their own scrap metal yard on a small lot close to their current location.

At first, it was just the two of them plus one of their sons and one employee running the business. They didn’t deal in bigger items, like cars and appliances, because their scale wasn’t big enough to weigh those items and they didn’t have room to store them on the lot.

In 1991, they moved to their current location because they wanted more space and a truck scale, which would allow them to weigh bigger loads of metal.

Now they have 30 employees, including their three children, and the equipment to handle metal of almost any size.

“We have machines that’ll cut a car in half, and we have machines that’ll smash a car,” Sharon McCoy says.

On the busiest days, lines of customers snake around the block.

The business gets visits from professional scrap collectors like Dixon and those who bring in scrap periodically. Customers also include environmentalists, homeless people and school groups that are trying to raise money.

Then there’s the endless assortment of goods they bring. McCoy’s 4.5-acre lot is covered in piles of metal, from the obvious, such as refrigerators and tin cans, to the unexpected, like school buses and fire engines.

“We’ve bought airplanes and road graters,” Sharon McCoy says. “You never know what people have to sell.”

McCoy’s Iron & Metal

Owners: Michael and Sharon McCoy

Founded: 1990

Address: 321 N. Fort Ave., Springfield, MO 65802

Phone: (417) 866-3707

Fax: (417) 831-7707

Services: Buys and resells scrap metal, including iron, copper, tin and aluminum.

Employees: 30