The tornados that devastated local communities this month have created work for people who collect scrap metal, like Emma Bray-Simons of Raleigh.
“It’s unlimited. The money is unlimited,” she said Thursday, while dropping off a pile of metal at Raleigh Metal Recycling on Garner Road. “There’s lots of junk around.”
She and her husband have made their living by recycling metals for about two years. Since the tornado about a week and a half ago, Bray-Simons says they can make up to $300 a day.
“You never know what you’re going to pick up because you never know what’s been blown around,” she said.
Since the tornado, new faces have started coming to Raleigh Metal Recycling, including James McLamb of Raleigh, who is unemployed and dropped off parts of a washing machine Thursday.
“A little bit of change in the pocket, a little gas money,” he said.
Raleigh Metal Recycling’s business is up about 20 percent since the tornado, according to General Manager Calvin Finley. And on Monday customers took home an average of $117, Finley said.
The company accepts all types of metal, except if it’s stolen. People who drop off metal have to show identification and they get their pictures taken. Still Finley admits it’s tough to know where metal comes from.
“There’s people that are picking up debris in front of their house that came from South Saunders Street that’s four or five blocks away,” he said. “As far as, is it theirs or what… we don’t know. I mean it was kind of like a state of emergency there for a while.”
The recycled metal is used locally and as far away as China for new buildings, car parts, among other things.
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