JAY ANAST, Owner of Alliance Metals

Anast says one of his business’s biggest challenges is discouraging poaching – stealing things to sell them as scrap. "When metals’ prices were high they actually were stealing pieces off of the Bay Bridge," says Anast. He has seen $10,000 sculptures that poachers were pawning off for 40 cents a pound or aluminum ladders taken from construction sites and intentionally run-over. But working with scrap does have some advantages. "You can’t hurt anything because your whole inventory is all junk."