00:00It's sad to say, but this industry has life support right now.
00:06Since 2022, we had all over Trinidad and Tobago, we would have a hundred and about sixty-something yards.
00:18If I tell you how much yards it has now, I don't know if Trinidad could believe me, but I'm telling you.
00:23If we have twenty-six yards, we have plenty.
00:26The head of the Scrap Iron Dealers Association laments the pressures the association faces to survive, adding that the industry is a mere shadow of its former self.
00:38In 2022, the previous government banned the export of scrap iron and copper due to increased incidents of theft, including the removal of infrastructure at WASA and TSTT installations.
00:53Today, Ferguson says, the industry provides jobs and opportunities for young men, but they are often treated with scorn.
01:02And a lot of people who were in the industry, too, who wasn't buying stolen material had to face that.
01:07And I could use some reference. Each and every single day, people stealing cars.
01:14But they didn't do that to the car industry.
01:18Every single day, people going in people's houses and even TV and radio and all kinds of things.
01:23Nobody banned all these things.
01:25He adds that even past inmates who want to change their lives and provide for their families are welcomed to earn a just living in the industry.
01:35He laments the crime problem, stressing that providing jobs for these men can help curb crime.
01:42Ferguson further tells TV6, if the industry is allowed to thrive, it can add to economic growth.
01:49We were able to bring in foreign exchange. That's what we were finding.
01:52We were finding help to your rubbish that you're throwing away and making the government spend millions of dollars every month.
02:01All we said, help us. Work with us.
02:03If this government, and we hope and we pray that they're ready to work with us, and I think they will.
02:08Because I don't think, and I'm making it brutal and honest for us saying, I don't think nothing could be more worse than will be possible for the last four or five years.
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