About Us: Five Generations of Recycling Excellence

  Our story begins in 1909, when Isador Lazar immigrated to the United States in search of opportunity. He found it in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he established his roots in the scrap metal business the only way he could: with a horse and wagon, going door to door and yard to yard, collecting metal, glass, and other recyclable materials during the wartime efforts. 

It was hard, unglamorous work. But Isador had an eye for value where others saw junk, and a work ethic that would come to define his family for generations. Route by route, load by load, he built the foundation of what would become a lasting family enterprise.

Building an Institution: Lakeside Non-Ferrous Metals, 1936

By 1936, Isador’s one-man operation had grown into something much larger. That year, the family formally established Lakeside Non-Ferrous Metals, transforming decades of horse-and-wagon hauling into a true metals processing business serving the Bay Area. Lakeside specialized in non-ferrous metals — copper, brass, aluminum, and more — supplying industry throughout the region as the Bay Area boomed.

Lakeside Non-Ferrous Metals became the family’s flagship for decades, built on the same principles Isador practiced from his very first route: fair dealing, hard work, and finding value where others didn’t look.

Expanding the Legacy: A-1 Recycling

As the family business grew, so did its footprint. The Lazar family eventually acquired A-1 Recycling, based in Sacramento, bringing the same standards of integrity and expertise that had built Lakeside Non-Ferrous Metals into a trusted name in the Bay Area. The acquisition extended the family’s reach beyond the Bay Area and into the greater Sacramento region, giving contractors, businesses, and residents there access to the same family-first approach to recycling.

Today, A-1 Recycling carries that legacy forward as one of Northern California’s most established names in scrap metal and recycling services. What started with one man, one horse, and one wagon in 1909 has grown into a business now in its fifth generation of family ownership. Through more than a century of change — economic booms and busts, evolving industry regulations, and a completely transformed recycling landscape — the Lazar family has kept the business in the family and kept its founding values intact.

While much of the recycling industry has consolidated under large corporate ownership, our family-owned roots remain a point of pride and a point of difference. Every customer who works with us today benefits from five generations of hands-on experience, relationships, and a genuine commitment to doing right by the community.

Our Commitment Today

From non-ferrous and ferrous metal recycling to contractor drop-off services and more, A-1 Recycling continues the mission Isador Lazar started with a horse and wagon in 1909: turning discarded materials into lasting value — for our customers, our community, and our environment.

A-1 Recycling — A fifth-generation family business serving Northern California.