The Man They Gave the LAKES Award To

By Siam Sukkhee Trading Co., Ltd — 2026-10-05 — ISRI (Institute of Scrap)

Andrew Lincoln won an award in Sandusky, Ohio this August. Not the kind of thing that makes headlines, but it matters in the industry.

The award—the Robin K. Wiener LAKES thing—recognises leaders who've shaped both their businesses and their communities. He's the third person to get it.

Lincoln runs Lincoln Recycling out of Erie. Family business, third generation now. He's been at it for more than 25 years, which sounds like a lot until you realise his father was doing this when he was a child. He literally learned the trade by weighing in customers and collecting UBCs from bars once he could drive.

What's interesting about him—and this is where these awards actually mean something—is that he didn't just stay inside his company doing the obvious thing. Operations, trading, finance, human resources, health and safety. All of it fell to him at different points. But the real work happened in the wider industry.

He was president of the Pittsburgh ReMA chapter. State legislative stuff. Finance committee. Not glamorous work. The kind of committee work that people avoid. He took it on anyway.

Actually, that's not quite right—it's not that he avoids anything. He studied economics at University of New Hampshire, competed on their ski team, did an MBA at Babson. Then came back to Erie and joined the family shop. The education mattered, the ski racing mattered, but what stuck was the willingness to show up to the unglamorous bits.

His community engagement is the type that people write about in these nominations but rarely actually do. Sisters of Saint Joseph Neighborhood Network. Erie Cemetery Association. Junior Achievement. He runs an annual Earth Day colouring contest for schoolkids in grades K–5, something like that. None of it is performative. It's local work.

The larger point: he's one of the people who helped set up the Great Lakes Regional Conference itself. That three-day event doesn't happen without organisers willing to absorb the complexity. Most people in business don't volunteer for that.

Giving Lincoln an award named after her says something.

None of this is revolutionary. He's a solid operator in a family business who did the work that needed doing. But that's exactly what these recognitions are for.

Source: "Lincoln has been an active volunteer leader within ReMA, serving as president of the Pittsburgh Chapter and taking on national leadership roles, including co-chair of the State Legislative Subcommittee and the Finance Committee." — Recycled Materials Association

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