Thousands of old EverBank stadium seats find new life at Big Iron Recycling, where crews dismantle them for materials while acknowledging fans’ nostalgia.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — If you’ve ever sat in an EverBank stadium seat cheering on your team, you might be surprised to see where thousands of those seats end up after they’re removed.
Right now, stacks of old stadium seats sit piled high at Big Iron Recycling, Inc., and crews are working through them one by one.
“We’ve got just hard labor out here,” said Eric Gibson, vice president of Big Iron Recycling. “We’re all just kind of team up and run through it with impact guns and take it all apart by hand.”
Taking apart thousands of seats is no small task.
Gibson said the project started about three months ago, and the team is now close to wrapping things up.
“So we are about 90% done with this,” Gibson said. “It’s been a hurdle, but it’s been somewhat profitable, close to a break-even situation, but we’re almost done.”
The company partnered with Waste Pro after other scrap yards turned the job down.
Each seat is made up of multiple materials, including plastic, cast iron, and stainless steel, and workers separate each piece so it can be recycled.
Buckets of bolts, piles of plastic, and stacks of heavy metal parts fill the yard as crews take the seats apart.
And when it comes to the cast iron pieces, Gibson says that’s where the real value is.
“This is the money for us,” Gibson said. “This is what makes it profitable to our company.”
For many people, these seats hold sentimental value, memories of big games, concerts, and special moments.
While the focus is recycling, Gibson said the company understands the interest from people hoping to hold onto a piece of history.
“If someone’s interested, they could reach out to Big Iron Recycling, and maybe we’ll entertain them,” Gibson said. “But we’re not set up as a retail store. We’re here to recycle the material.”