Isaac and Lynn Camacho in front of their machinery at a recent demolition job near Corpus Christi. Courtesy photo
Lynn Camacho of Camacho Recycling and Demolition wants to keep Corpus Christi clean and green. She and her husband, Isaac, started the business in 2004 with only four employees and a few dollars. Now, 13 years later, the business has grown to include almost 90 staff members and five locations in the Coastal Bend, including Camacho Recycling in Sinton, Beeville and Robstown and Camacho Demolition in Corpus Christi and Edinburg.
The company provides recycling, demolition, container service, and asbestos and lead abatement to the surrounding areas of the Coastal Bend as well as parts of the Rio Grande Valley, including McAllen and Edinburg.
Entrepreneurship runs in the family, as does working with scrap metal.
“Our father was in the scrap metal business most of his life and, at one point, owned a scrap yard himself,” said brother Julian Camacho, who serves as general manager of Camacho Demolition. “My mother worked as a cook and owned a small restaurant. Our family had eleven children. Isaac is number eight, and I am number ten.”
Also working at Camacho Recycling and Demolition are siblings Angel, Chris, Johnny, Joe and Juana. In addition, Isaac and Lynn’s children, Issac Jr., Tabatha and Katie, are involved in the company, too.
Julian Camacho attributes the business’s success to his brother Isaac, whom he calls the true entrepreneur of the family.
“At an early age, Isaac showed such a strong work ethic,” Julian said. “He started working while he was in eighth grade to save up money for an old car. During high school, a company he worked for was so impressed with him, they offered to have him travel with them across the country — while he was still in high school!”
Isaac has always possessed a burning desire to own his own company, Julian continued. He tried various career options before coming across a small scrap yard for sale in Sinton in 2004. He started with four employees, all of whom were family members, including his wife, who worked at a different job during the day and helped the family business at night. The early years of Camacho Recycling were a struggle.
“It was difficult in the beginning,” Julian said. “Isaac would pay his employees on Friday and then on Monday would ask them to loan him the money back to pay for more metal. They would load 20,000 pounds of metal by hand in containers. They would work late at night as the container was dropped off for only one day and needed to be hauled off the next morning. But Isaac had a vision of growing the business and was willing to do the hard work to achieve it.”
As the scrap yard grew, Isaac Camacho was able to secure a large demolition job of a power plant in Corpus Christi. The job originally belonged to LVI, one of the largest demo companies in the United States. Camacho Demolition was hired on as a subcontractor. During the 15-month demolition project, LVI had only a few employees on site with Isaac and his crew of 10 performing the labor.
Realizing that Corpus Christ lacked its own demolition company, and knowing his company could recycle the metal better than anyone in the area, an idea was born, and Isaac Camacho purchased his first dumpster truck and container. Not only would he fill a need for demolition services, the jobs would also provide a source of needed metal for his existing scrap yard.
Fast forward to today. Camacho Recycling and Demolition owns more than 140 dumpsters, six dumpster trucks and a fleet of eight large trailers to haul scrap and concrete — no more loading by hand.
“We have ten large excavators in the fleet and eight Bobcat Skidsteers,” Julian Camacho said. “There are now three scrap yards. Also, we have two demolition offices, one serving the Coastal Bend Region and a second one in Edinburg serving the Rio Grande Valley.”
Currently, about 90 employees, including the first employee hired, work for the company. High-profile clients and projects have included a five-story building in downtown Corpus Christi and the decommissioning of a smelting plant.
“We recently completed our thirtieth school demolition,” Julian Camacho said. “We have had the opportunity to work for Texas A&M and the University of Texas, not to mention [the Texas Department of Transportation], most of the cities in our area and many general contractors.”
As for the future of the company, Lynn Camacho hopes their family’s recycling business continues to grow and helps provide cleaner surroundings for generations to come. She said they get a sense of pride and satisfaction from removing an abandoned building from a blighted area, cleaning up and helping the neighborhood.
“With everyone working together to keep the environment clean and recycling, then we can make this place a better place for our future kids and grandkids,” she said.
A family legacy is important to the Camacho family. Lynn and Isaac have been together since they were in the eighth grade. They have been married 32 years.
Camacho Recycling and Demolition is located at 7141 U.S. 77 in Sinton; 5113 Agnes St. in Corpus Chrsiti; and 2400 W. Corpus Christi in Beeville. For more information, call (361) 364-9047 or (361) 289-1095 or visit camachorecycling.net.
