{"id":430977,"date":"2025-12-07T12:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T12:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/430977\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T12:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T12:47:11","slug":"brothers-on-a-mission-expanding-the-family-business-one-step-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/430977\/","title":{"rendered":"Brothers on a Mission: Expanding The Family Business One Step at a Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

By: Deedee El bego<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

USA Recycling is a family owned and operated scrap metal recycling business that is steadily expanding due to brothers Alexis and Ulises Rayas, and their unwavering motivation.\u00a0USA Recycling was opened in April of 2016 by their father but since he recently retired, the brothers have been working full time to operate and grow the business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Rayas family posing for a family photo, (Courtesy of Alexis Rayas). <\/p>\n

Currently they are applying for licenses that will allow them to start buying and selling cars.\u00a0By accepting car parts and selling them they can make more money, but they also won\u2019t have to turn away people that bring them anymore.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brother, Ulises, is gifted in numbers and I\u2019m more about vision testing, making things happen and accelerating. I\u2019m more of a dreamer in that way,\u201d said Alexis Rayas, 31.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I worked at other jobs I would always think of ways things can be done more efficiently but I would feel restricted. Yet, over the years my family keeps taking real chances on me. It\u2019s encouraging and has always been a boost of confidence, especially when they would say my ideas helped them alot,\u201d He added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The biggest obstacle right now for Alexis and Ulises is that obtaining the licenses needed is difficult to do if you aren\u2019t already a large established company in Chicago. It\u2019s a long complicated process due to the city\u2019s zoning laws, community approval meetings, and obtaining approval from the Environmental Protection Agency of Chicago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite knowing this, a determined Alexis and Ulises visited Chicago\u2019s City Hall with all the paperwork they needed to obtain their licenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even though they had everything prepared they were rejected due to the city\u2019s zoning regulations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They took the rejection with their heads held high and decided that they aren\u2019t going to give up yet. The brothers remain hopeful and are planning on continuing to discuss USA Recycling\u2019s future plans with the Alderman of the 18th Ward, Derrick G. Curtis so that they can finally get approved.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their current peak production is about 5-6 truckloads per day, or about 13-15 tons of scrap metal. Some people might think that there might be less scrap metal to accumulate as the temperature drops but Ulises says that many in their community collect scrap metal full time in order to feed their families.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A full lot of scrap metal ready to be sorted. Photo courtesy of Alexis Rayas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Locals appreciate having a trustworthy, nearby place to go. This is why the brothers have made it part of their mission to recognize their community and make sure they always pay them fairly for the scrap metal they bring in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following a decade of hard work paved by their father, the brothers are more determined than ever to keep pushing forward as Alexis continues to paint a vivid picture of USA Recycling\u2019s future.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 \u00a0 By: Deedee El bego \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 USA Recycling is a family owned and operated scrap…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":430978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-430977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115678363528313212","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}