Hurricane Irma drives aluminium scrap intake in Lee County

Hurricane Irma which has left behind heaps of twisted metal and busted appliances has indirectly caused an increase in aluminium scrap intake in the scrap yards in Lee County. Mountains of metal debris are pouring in every day in the local scrap yards.

All Scrap Recycling is one of the few scrap yards in Lee County that's seen a quick growth in aluminium scrap sales after the storm tore down metal structures, roofs and fences in the area.

The company offers a cut of their profit to the amateur scrap suppliers.

"You're looking at a three-to-four story tall pile of literally just carport and sheet aluminum." said All Scrap Manager, Trevor Mackellar

One of the customers said that most of the aluminium scraps are from trailers and stuff that were dismantled by the hurricane.

"Aluminum pool cages, aluminum carports, appliances, air conditioners, even some of your household appliances that you may have lost, down to toasters, VCRs, Cable TV boxes,” Mackellar said.

It is an interesting thing that customers can make money out of their storm damages.

"We're paying anywhere from 25 cents a pound, up to 65 cents a pound. If you have 200 pounds of pool cage, you'll be getting back 80 to 100 to 200 dollars, depending on how clean and prepared you are with your material," Mackellar said.

The scrap yards won’t accept refrigerators or appliances with rotten food or goods inside of them.

One positive side effect of Irma was this flow of aluminium scrap material to the scrap yards and All Scrap said they had hired three more full-time employees just to keep the operations running. The flipside of the situation however, is that with increasing supply of aluminium, the scrap prices drop and profit could go down for everyone in near future.