Can land Recycling Center
Can Land Recycling Center, 6141 Federal Blvd, Denver, Colorado, United States

Ed began recycling metals in the late 1960’s. He was originally a blacksmith and welder and started doing fabrication for Sundstrand Aviation, which was located in the north Denver area.  At one point, he had completed a large project for Sundstrand and instead of collecting money, he was paid with 65 dump truck loads of scrap metals which Sundstrand needed to get rid of.  He made significantly more from the scrap metals than he would have had he collected for his welding and fabrication work.  This launched him into the scrap business.  Originally, he had only a dump truck and used it to haul the scrap metals.  In those days, he was called a junk man.  It was not until the 1980’s that the junk dealers became recyclers!  His first old junk yard was a few blocks from Federal on W. 60th Avenue.  Early on, he occasionally junked some automobiles, but his main business was always scrap metals.   The seats of the older cars were cushioned with cotton, so not only was he able to redeem the cars for steel value, but he also sold the cotton. This is where three of Ed’s four children came in. Beth, Patty, and Shaun often helped their dad on weekends and in the summer.  One of their first jobs was to strip and recover the cotton found in these old cars. Shaun and Patty continued over the years helping their dad when they were not in school and of course they got their play time down at the salvage yard too.  Another large business that Ed frequently picked up scrap from was a well known amusement park that once sat off of 38th Avenue and Tennyson, known as Elitche Gardens.  It has been a part of Denver for over 100 years . Currently two of the old box cars from the train are displayed as flower boxes in front of Can Land.  Ed was born in 1930 and passed away in 2013. One of his side business was demolition of chillers and boilers that are used in cooling and heating large buildings.  Ed always settled for the simple things in life such as driving old pickup trucks and falling asleep on the living room floor after a long hard day at work.  One of his favorite sayings was “Never pay bills on an empty stomach.”