Jack Cameron, Recycling Hero

What a great job the Star Tribune's Neal St. Anthony has: He gets to write about the cool things local businesses are doing. (Earlier stories of his I've noted were about Ever Cat Fuels and youth mentoring.)

Today's story tells about a guy named Jack Cameron, who started a two-person company 35 years ago with the intent of reusing and recycling kitchen appliances to keep them out of landfills. Over the years Cameron has connected with the big home hardware stores like Lowes and Home Depot, plus the utility companies that work with homeowners to replace their appliances with more energy-efficient ones.

Now his company, Appliance Recycling Centers of America, has over 500 employees. 20 percent of the appliances they handle get refurbished and sold as used, while 80 percent are sold for scrap, after their contaminants are removed. ARCA also owns ApplianceSmart, a seller of energy-efficient appliances and scratch and dent models.

And Cameron, according to St. Anthony, "was the lowest-paid CEO in the Star Tribune's most-recent ranking of the 100 highest-paid Minnesota CEOs" -- clocking in at just $263,278. That's significantly less than the salaries of several heads of small private schools in the Twin Cities.

Cameron sounds like a guy who can sleep at night, knowing he's done what he can to make the world a better place.