Mark Wayne is the president of The Amlon Group, a recycling and environmental services company based in New York City. The group has facilities in Texas and Louisiana. Wayne holds a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurial business and strategic management from the University of North Texas. He has been working in the recycling industry since 2000.
Wayne's first job was in the warehouse at Metallic Industries, which merged with Yonack Iron & Metal and then sold to Commercial Metals Co. After that, he became a plant manager at Commercial Metals Co. During the 2010s, Wayne worked his way up to the C-suite at precious metals refiner Elemetal. He has been with Amlon since 2012.
In a recent interview, Wayne recently answered some questions about his company and the industry. He also discussed what's next in continuous innovation to provide renewable materials for manufacturing.
How has recycling changed during your time at The Amlon Group?
We have improved our recycling process over the last decade, and we continuously strive to get better. For years, we reclaimed high-quality materials from waste to be used in manufacturing. Often our appeal convinced a limited audience. But now our customers come from various industries that want to do their part in preserving the environment.
How are national and international regulations affecting Amlon, and how are you responding?
For years, our company has dealt with metal-based recycling that often involved harmful chemicals. Consequently, making sure we always followed regulatory guidelines was crucial to The Amlon Group's success. In recent years, we have expanded by buying multiple new facilities to help us more efficiently manage the recovered materials.
We discovered that continuing to provide our customers with forward-thinking services is paramount to keeping up our high standards. Those of us on the logistics team responsible for shipping materials both domestically and internationally are fully certified in regulatory compliance, so we can always meet (and exceed) customer expectations. Plus, we're able to help our international customers follow their local and national environmental laws.
It’s been just about a year since Heartwood Partners LLC partnered with The Amlon Group. What kind of growth resulted from the investment?
Over the past year, Heartwood has help our company expand in a variety of ways. Not only have they given us additional growth capital when needed, but their team has also Analysis conducted on operational efficiencies and best practices within the organization with an aim to define who we are as well as deriving value propositions. Throughout the year we have evaluated several acquisition opportunities, as well as organic growth options, and are excited to see some of those come to fruition.
We bought our new East Texas campus early in our partnership, which included fully equipped office spaces, a warehouse, and a 10-day storage facility near Alpha Omega Recycling plant in Longview. This campus provides The Amlon Group with the additional capacity to expand its services throughout our region.
We acquired the new Amlon Port Allen location in Louisiana this past June to help increase our capabilities of producing renewable sustainable materials. Adding this facility provides us with another means to service expanded sectors and continue to produce high quality renewable sustainable materials.
Where does Amlon fit into the greater sustainability challenge?
At The Amlon Group, we strive to be a sustainability leader in our industry. We believe that this is not only at the core of who we are, but also what our customers expect from us. They rely on us to source high quality renewable materials, and we are uniquely positioned to help them meet their sustainability goals by treating, recycling, and repurposing materials. Our team is well-equipped to solve our customers' most pressing sustainability challenges due to their diverse backgrounds and experience.
We specialize in materials sourcing and trading, fuel blending, and a wide range of environmental services. We are able to return high quality renewable sustainable materials to the smelting, refining, and chemical manufacturing industries.
What are your goals for The Amlon Group for the future?
Amlon Group seeks to grow through organic means and strategic acquisitions. This will allow us to improve our capabilities, giving us the ability to offer a wider variety of sustainable materials that meet high quality standards to our customers.
We are working to build a world class environmental services company to manage the needs of global industries as we all push together toward the common goal of providing consumers with the services they want while safeguarding our environment for future generations.
