EVERETT – Mitchell Sutton is serious about recycling. It’s hard not to be when your paycheck is determined by tonnage.
The Idaho man makes his living traveling around crushing cars. He figures he ships 20 million to 30 million pounds of steel, iron and other metals to processors every year.
Giant shredders mince the cars, which have already been crushed. Usable material is transformed into rebar, structural beams, appliances and other products.
While many people extol the virtues of recycling, Sutton says he is often treated like a junkyard dog.
“A lot of people hate it because they don’t understand it,” said Sutton, who is owner of Mitchell’s Mobile Mashing of Lewiston, Idaho.
Crooks who crush stolen cars and messy operators who spill lakes of toxic fluid are mostly to blame, he said.
City police and state troopers were called out to his operation near an Everett wrecking yard this week. They determined he was working within the law.
Ordinarily, crushers have to stay inside a fenced salvage yard, State Patrol Trooper Kirk Rudeen said.
“In this case, Everett public works has issued a permit to allow this operation on Smith Street to crush autos outside the wrecking yard,” he said. “When the city gives them a permit, we can’t override that.”
He said there was no evidence of oil or antifreeze spills and that debris was being swept up.
Sutton applied for the permit after he discovered low-hanging power lines near the parts yard.
Before forklifts brought the car bodies out from the yard, they were stripped of engines, transmissions, radiators, batteries and mercury switches.
Some oil was left on the street.
State Department of Ecology spokesman Larry Altose said that was a concern if the oil wound up being washed into storm drains.
“(However) having a few drops of oil is probably par for the course,” he said.
Sutton, whose family is in the salvaging business, said he has invested about $170,000 in equipment during the past year. He said he is sometimes frustrated with government regulations that he considers excessive.
“I’m 23, trying to run a business and do the right thing and they make it difficult,” he said.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
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