SCRAPPING TO RECYCLING STILL THE SAME BUSINESS

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- "The name has changed over the years from scrapping to salvaging, then to recycling, but it's still the same business."

That is how Cleo E. Johns, manager of Johns Metal-Iron & Salvage Co., described his business as it moves into the last decade of this century.

Recycling has always been around, but it was not emphasized like it is today. For generations people have recycled worn out clothing into quilts. On the farm, nothing was wasted: machinery was used until nothing was repairable.

Johns' grandfather, Charles Edward Johns, recycled in the 1920s, collecting and selling metal to supplement income from a wedding- and funeral-photography business. The part-time work turned out to be more to his liking, so he opened Johns' Salvage Yard in 1927 at 130 South Frederick, now the site of the Missouri Division of Family Services offices.

"You name it, he recycled it," Johns recalled. "He bought rope, rags, bones, just about anything man-made or grown." Apparently, one of the few things he refused to deal in was animal hides due to the smell. The elder Johns' son, Cleo Elvin Johns, got into that business later, and at 74, still works part-time. Now, the third generation of the family, Cleo Edward Johns, is managing the business, having started when he was old enough to help out.

Johns started his career picking up nails, screws and bolts that fell off customers' loads from the company's driveway. It helped prevent flat tires and eliminated needless waste. In 1952, when he was 14, Johns was working after school, on weekends, and summer vacation around the salvage yard.

The thriving business added a second operation at 1110 South Kingshighway in 1950, and then closed the South Frederick facility in 1957 in favor of the newer, 10-acre site on the southwest side of town. Johns has been working there fulltime since 1957, when he graduated from high school.

He said he anticipates remaining with the business and adapting as it changes. "I plan to stay in recycling and salvaging until they lower my box with me in it," Johns said. "I enjoy it. No two days are the same; there's always something different."

Expecting more transitions, Johns is making plans. "It will be modernized," he predicted. "We will be using a new crane and boom and get more competitive." He said he plans to continue using cutting torches, as in the past, to sever scrap metal.

Johns said major recycling centers in urban areas are using new, hydraulic shears to tear down structural steel, taking seconds instead of minutes for the process. One of the new generation of cutters was used to disassemble the Ilada oil tanks near McClure, Ill. Another innovation in the metal recycling industry, he pointed out, is the gigantic car-shredding machine that pelletizes 600 cars in eight hours.

Johns said his auto-salvage business will continue as is, selling salvageable parts from vehicles he purchases. "The auto-salvage business is not obsolete," he said. "People always want a bargain. For example, I can sell a used Chevrolet transmission for $100 that would cost $1,400 otherwise."

He said there are fewer "shade-tree mechanics," once a staple of automobile-repair business. With more computer controls on cars, mechanical repair has shifted to electronic technicians.

Johns prefers older cars, but being a self-described "gadget nut," he likes features in new cars, such as synthetic voices to give warnings.

He said his all-time choice car is a 1957 Corvette with a four-speed transmission fuel-injected 283 engine. Johns had a similar car once. "It cost $3,200 then, and it's worth 60-grand now. If we knew then what we know now ... ," he mused.