How to get cash for your scrap metal left behind by Hurricane Ian

When Hurricane Ian tore through Florida, it left a trail of destruction in its wake: downed trees, damaged roofs, flooded homes and cars. Much of the metal siding and materials has ended up in recycling centers, like Dominion Metal Recycling in DeLand.

DELAND, Fla. - When Hurricane Ian tore through Florida, it left a trail of destruction in its wake: downed trees, damaged roofs, flooded homes and cars. Much of the metal siding and materials has ended up in recycling centers, like Dominion Metal Recycling in DeLand.

"Definitely we're starting to see a heck of a lot more scrap coming in from the different households," says Dominion’s owner Bart Phillips, "it's all the things that got destroyed from any type of water damage, and then you also have aluminum from screen enclosures and awnings."

Phillips says they accept any kind of metal. "We take in aluminum, copper, steel, brass, but mostly steel. We have steel beams here from the power company for the high-tension wires."

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Dominion pays $6.50 per hundred pounds of steel that's brought in, with other rates for other kinds of metals. Phillips says about 90 percent of the material brought into his recycling yard was hauled there by scrappers.

Phillips says if you have scrap metal to throw away and you don't bring it to a recycling center like his, someone else probably will. "Two choices, if they have a way to haul it themselves, they can make a few dollars bringing it in themselves. Or they can put it to the curb and someone will pick it up before even the garbage man comes by!"

Either way, Phillips says there's a chance you'll eventually see that metal again. "It'll be cut down, brought to size, sent back to the steel mills, it'll come back as new steel and new products for here."