Shelly-Ann Thompson, Staff Reporter

The lucrative scrap-metal trade has placed value on almost every piece of metal within the home.

In addition to motor vehicle parts, zinc sheetings, window blades, cylinder heads and gas tubes sell for up to $5,000 a pound.

Empty food cans are also worth hundreds of dollars in the multimillion-dollar business that was basically put on hold last week by the Industry, Investment and Commerce Minister, Karl Samuda.

Sardine, sausage, Red Bull and Fruta drink cans, which are mainly made of iron or aluminium, value $30 a pound.

Profitable on large scale

Evon James, a scrap-metal vendor from Clarendon, said that on a small scale, a single piece of item might fetch a very low cost.

However, the scrap metal trade is profitable for a vendor when tonnes of items are sold, Mr. James explained.

"If you get a truck and travel throughout (the island) collecting along the road, depending on what you get you might collect close to hundred grand ($100,000) for that load," he said.

Each item of aluminium, copper, brass, stainless steel or iron is worth dollars.

Naturally, motor vehicles fetch the most money. A car is worth about $6,000 per tonne. The seats and other non-metallic parts of the vehicle are removed before it is weighed.

"This might seem small for an old car that someone values. But you would be getting rid of junk," Mr. James noted.

While the ban on export is in effect, not all scrap metal exporters are against the stance taken by the minister.

John Nunes, who makes some $400,000 annually from exporting scrap metal, said that regularisation of the trade should put some form of order into the business.

"It is getting out of hand, so at some point, the Government has to step in," Mr. Nunes who hails from St. Catherine said.

shelly-ann.thompson@gleanerjm.com