Building the Valley: Fourth generation keeps family business running at Pitt Penn Recycling

When Brad Stanzione’s great-grandfather launched a recycling business in the 1920s, he had no way of knowing he was creating a family legacy.

Since then, each of his sons, grandsons and great-grandsons has followed suit.

For Brad, the real journey started about two years ago when he and his brother, John, opened Pitt Penn Recycling in the Creighton section of East Deer.

Pitt Penn Recycling accepts all mediums of recyclable material, including cardboard, newspapers, scrap metal and wooden pallets.

The business at 426 Freeport Road is important to Brad Stanzione because he believes protecting the environment is crucial, especially today.

“We keep kicking up the world,” he said. “We’ve got to protect it.”

The company serves municipalities in Allegheny, Butler, Beaver, Armstrong and Westmoreland counties.

Pitt Penn Recycling also accepts contributions outside the areas it services.

Pitt Penn has more than 24 loading bays at its facility, where customers can drop off their recyclable materials and be paid for them.

The company makes money by selling the collected materials to multiple Fortune 500 companies, which use them to make new products.

The brothers did not disclose the specific companies that Pitt Penn works with, but John Stanzione said they are household names that most Pittsburghers are familiar with.

“If you’re receiving cardboard at your house, we’re probably dealing with the person that made the cardboard box,” he said.

Once Pitt Penn receives a contribution, it is compacted into cubed bales.

The process has been engrained into the Stanzione family for four generations.

“We’ve always been into recycling,” Brad said.

Their late father, also named John Stanzione, died two years ago after having owned Stanzione Iron and Metals in Saxonburg for much of his life.

The younger John said that after 19 years of working in paper recycling, he joined his brother in taking over their father’s business under the parent company of Pitt Penn Recycling in 2021.

“We wanted to keep going because of him,” Brad said. “We had always worked with him.”

He fondly remembers the times during high school and college when the brothers would spend the summer working with their father and grandfather.

While their father’s business had focused primarily on recycling scrap metal, through the brothers’ management and partnerships, the company has been able to expand quickly.

“There was so much competition in the scrap metal,” Brad said. “It was ridiculous.”

Today, their recycling business stretches into 83 townships.

“It was a snowball effect,” John said.

The brothers have a deep respect for the environment and said they want to do their part to help protect it.

They also stress the importance of educating people about recycling from a young age.

“We’re recycling today for a greener tomorrow,” Brad said.