Atlas Metal and Iron Corp. Aurora

The family-owned and operated business got its start in the mid-1950s when Don Rosen started a small metal recycling business in Denver. Mr. Rosen sensed the need in post-WWII Denver for scrapping on a greater level. The city was busting at the seams with urban reconstruction and new construction spreading into the suburbs. He partnered with his dad and two other in-laws to purchase one-acre lot at 3rd St. and Walnut St. to open their own metal recycling plant.

The essential recycling service has evolved over six decades into a sophisticated commodities market. Scrap isn’t waste; recycling isn’t disposable. “Our recycling methods put the metals back into the economic stream,” adds Rosen.

Atlas purchases both nonferrous and ferrous scrap metal including aluminum, brass, copper, lead, stainless steel, zinc, cast iron, and steel. The incoming scrap metal is baled, cut, chopped, sheared and sorted in an environmentally responsible manner to meet the stringent requirements of multinational end users. The Denver plant manufactures pure copper chops for domestic and foreign markets used in metallurgical and plating applications in nearly every major industry: transportation, engineering, machinery, electrical, building, automotive, computer and even exterior paint.