Active Metal Recyclers Inc. develops parts database for industry use

While 2023 presented an economic slowdown related to inflation rates and a decline in the value of precious metals, for brothers Danny and Shanji Thanpal—co-owners of Active Metal Recyclers in Princeton, Ontario—there was no halting the path of innovation.

With Canadian consumers looking more and more towards repairing their vehicles over purchasing new, Danny and Shanji saw this as an opportunity to embrace expansion in the variety of parts provided. Predominantly focused on catalytic converters, the brothers saw room for growth in the rebuildable automotive core line such as hybrid batteries and electronic components.

On top of this growth, the brothers also began working on a database to help auto wreckers and scrap yards gain information in what Danny and Shanji hopes will be “an open and transparent” source of information.

This user-friendly database was developed by collecting various automotive models’ information, including the year, make, engine size and market history related to more than 4000 pieces of data from between 1990 to 2022. While on the site, a user can thereby search by using a specific item code, vehicle, or manufacturer—but these categories are also intertwined to help optimize data.

With this database in place, Danny and Shanji hope to help provide those in the industry with more certainty—especially so that they “don’t have to gamble on a vehicle” by staying up to date on its specs and information. Another big achievement that the brothers saw in 2023 was the perfection of their in-house lab for testing catalytic converters. By working on expanding and stabilizing their process, Active Metal Recyclers Inc. was able to test, on average 70 to 100 catalytic converters a month and then upload this information to the database.

As such, in 2024, the brothers continue to look forward to launching their database, promoting their services and showing both consumers and the industry alike their innovative mindsets. “It’s a slow and steady climb,” Danny and Shanji noted. “But we’re a young company that first started in 2017 and so we have a long future in the industry. We also have a great team and we’re not afraid to take risks and explore new ideas.”