Articles

Houston recycling icon Proler Industries takes a modern turn

By Bart Taylor, GHMA

It’s hard to resist any contemporary business story that began a century ago. So it is with Houston industrial recycler Proler Industries, today led by the descendants of Ben Proler, who as great-grandson and Managing Partner Preston Proler described to me, “started his company in 1922 with a horse and buggy going around collecting and selling rags and bones and anything he could find to help feed his family.” 

Great things followed. 

In October 2024, the ​​Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington added the eponymous Prolerizer to its industrial collection — the world’s first automobile shredder —  drawn up on a cocktail napkin on a plane flight by Sam Proler, so the story goes, Ben’s son. Last year the City of Houston joined the party by proclaiming April 22, Earth Day, as Proler Family Day in recognition of the Prolerizer’s seminal impact on the recycling industry. In a fitting nod to Houston’s industrial base, the City made note of the “craftsmanship of Houston’s local, family-owned fabrication shops, whose skill and dedication brought the pieces together.”

As significant the Smithsonian recognition was in the company’s 100-year arc, generational businesses transition over time, and such has been the case for the Proler family. Today, Proler Industries is as much a start-up as it is a legacy business. 

Preston explains why. “The Prolerizer was a big milestone for the family and for the business, obviously. Proler International was the name of the company — they went on the New York Stock Exchange as the first publicly-traded scrap metal company — and then sadly, our grandfather Izzie Proler had an early passing in 1985 and the business was then sold a few short years later to what is now Derichebourg (DBG.PA)." It follows that Preston and Ryan’s father Ronny along with brother Bill Proler, broke away from Proler International to launch Proler Southwest.

Success followed the Proler name. “Within five years, Proler Southwest grew into the largest industrial-based scrapyard in the United States,” Preston says. “I think at the time, the company was recycling a little over 20,000 tons a month. And again, you couldn’t do that if you weren’t in Houston, Texas.”

Change has been constant, though. “Proler International handled both industrial and retail recycling, and also what we call ‘peddler traffic,” Preston says, “where people bring an F150 full of metal scrap from their little shop to be processed. Proler Southwest, and now Proler Industries, all we do is industrial manufacturing. Every roll-off box that comes through our gate is either our box, or a regional, smaller dealer’s box who lack their own direct access to rail & water. We don’t have any peddler traffic.” 

The latest and modern iteration of the family business – Proler Industries – is still today a family affair, with a decidedly modern character. I asked Preston if the new management team had cut ties entirely with the legacy business. “We sure did,” Preston says. “I won’t sugarcoat it. It was a blank canvas.”

Until it wasn’t. Success found a way. Again. Preston describes already experiencing “pivotal moments” in his company’s short arc, adding to a family legacy that boasts many. “Obviously, we had a head start, by way of understanding the market, the (scrap) supply, processes and procedures – and of course by understanding that making things easy for our customers is priority one,” he says. 

Houston’s growth as an industrial center has also fundamentally changed the business equation. Manolo Garza, a Proler Industries partner also in the interview, explained. “Bill and Ronny were doing about 20,000 tons a month at Proler Southwest in the early years and at one point shipped out over 120,000 tons in a single month. Most of that tonnage all resided within the (highway) 610 loop and barely outside of it. Getting out to the Beltway area, out to Dairy Ashford – all that was farmland,” he says. “Now, obviously you have city centers, subdivisions – sprawl. What that’s created is a need to operate logistics in-house, to own and operate a trucking company as opposed to outsourcing pickups to 20 separate operators, running 20 trucks, able to pick up only 15,000 to 20,000 tons of scrap a month. We still have the port of Houston – but the footprint is much larger.”

As is demand. “When you’re not running your own trucks, your future is really in someone else’s hands,” Manolo adds. “We’re just as much a service business as we are a processing business, and if we’re limited to how much scrap we can pick up, customers may have to shut down their business. Today we’re a scrap company that understands what can happen if the service isn’t there.”

   Preston and Bill Proler

If adding logistics and trucking were pivotal, so too have been other investments that today make scrap recycling as automation and technology-centric as any of the manufacturing companies that Proler Industries serves. More than that, it’s core to the new Proler brand.

“The last 10 years, starting with a blank canvas, we’ve been able to put some fresh eyes on the business and review the technology available to us to continue to grow,” Preston tells me. “From generation to generation, obviously some capabilities didn’t exist, but it’s also true that some in our business have ignored those capabilities because making scrap confusing and dirty makes it easier to play dumb, in a way.” It’s an honest admission. “When we started this company, we wanted to take advantage and utlize 21st century technology. We’re dealing with sophisticated oil companies, for example, that have a lot of money and technology at their disposal. We need to speak their language – instead of just being these dumb scrap guys,” he laughed.

As a practical matter, Proler’s investments in technology are viewed through a lens familiar to any company. “We run our business just like any other. All we can do is control our costs, without sacrificing service to customers.” That’s not to say that Proler’s leadership isn’t aware of the things that makes the company unique, and how uptooling and upskilling his business will pay off. “We’re one of the few operators that actually own all their trucking – and we can leverage that in interesting ways. GPS in the trucks enables us to geo-fence around each of our locations and customer locations, so that dispatch is notified when certain things occur. This also enables us to score and reward drivers – to compete with their peer group,” explains Corey Andregg, another founding partner. “Having a facility in the Port of Houston is not inexpensive. But having access to water, to rail – we need those things.”

There’s so much more to the Proler Industries, today. Preston, Manolo – and others – can talk for hours about the materials they handle, its chemical compositions, demand for scrap, where it’s shipped, how it’s shipped, who’s buying and why, macro-drivers of demand and price — this list goes on. I’ve captured just a slice of a short, one-hour interview. 

Enough to know that at this end of the industrial value-chain, Houston’s Recycling Royalty is doing its part to bury the dumb and dirty reputation that still works against the sector.   

Bart Taylor is executive director of the Greater Houston Manufacturing Association. Reach him at [email protected]. 

Proler Industries is a GHMA member. Meet Ryan Proler and the Proler Industries team at GHMA events. Or contact Ryan at [email protected].