“Buying scrap iron, ole battery buying.”
This refrain has become a significant part of the pop culture of Trinidad and Tobago.
But where exactly did it come from?
Well, the voice that you try to emulate when you are saying it actually belongs to 64-year-old Jairam Seebaran.
Seebaran and his co-worker Raj Ramnath coined the catchy slogan years ago as a means of getting the attention of residents as they hustled for scrap iron, old car batteries, and other “precious” metals throughout neighbourhoods across the country.
They did not expect it to become what it has now — a thriving multi-million dollar trade attracting wholesale buyers from China, India and Turkey.
“We were the first people in Trinidad and Tobago with mics starting to do this work,” Seebaran said.
Seebaran started working in the scrap iron industry more than 10 years ago.
“We didn’t start working with mics (microphones), but eventually we put it in and we made the recording,” Seebaran said.
Up to yesterday, he was on the road in the Belmont area around 9.30 am still on the grind.
He chose the area because he felt it would be busy and profitable on a Saturday with most people expected to be home.
“During the week everybody does be working but on a Saturday, Sunday, holiday everybody does be home, so that is why we chose the area,” Seebaran said.
Seebaran was accompanied in the van by Ramnath’s son, Nigel, 18, who was driving, and Laurence Sookhan.
They left their homes in south Trinidad around 6 am to work in the northern part of the country.
This trio is just one of many groups that currently traverse the country in search of scrap iron and the money it can bring.
While Seebaran had his voice blasting from speakers on the roof of the van he was inside yesterday, Adesh Ali shouted the refrain while his brother Kishore drove their pickup through the streets of Cascade on Friday.
Adesh does not know exactly where the refrain he was uttering came from but he knows that it is exactly what he needs to say to get the attention he wants.
While those six words have in recent time become a part of social media memes and other comedic outlets.
To the Ali brothers, it is no joke.
It is noon on Friday and the brothers have been on the road since 7 am “hustling” to get scrap iron to sell.
This reporter joined them for a portion of their journey.
By the time we met up, the brothers had already started to pack their tray with an array of items they picked up that was left discarded on the side of the road.
“Some people just put it out at the side of the road and we pass and collect it, they don’t know they are throwing away money,” Kishore said.
Their workday ended at 4 pm as they rushed to get to the scrap yard in Carlsen Field.
The scrap yard closes at 5 pm, Kishore said.
At the end of the day, their van’s tray was filled with all kind of discarded iron including washing machines and galvanised sheets.
“Would you consider today a good day, a successful day?” I asked Kishore as I looked at the stash they accumulated.
“Every day is a successful day. If I make a dollar I make plenty because I didn’t put anything out there, I just came to find it,” he said.
While at 9 am the Alis were on the road hustling, Michael Cabie was already at the St Helena Bypass Road scrap yard getting his load weighed.
Cabie and Anson Martin were in Tobago on Thursday hustling.
The returned to Trinidad on the Cabo Star with their van loaded with scrap iron.
When they weighed at the scrap yard their load totalled 2,610 kilogrammes.
Their load which was packed to capacity was filled with radiators, motors and what Cabie called the “precious gem” — batteries.
“When iron is 75 cents a pound, batteries are $2 a pound and they don’t take up much room in the van,” he said.
Martin said the scrap iron industry has helped him achieve things he never thought possible.
When they first got into the business Cabie bought a cheap van for them to move around in.
In a week’s time they made back the cost of the van, Martin said.
Martin, a Muslim, said he was able to go on hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, because of money obtained from scrap iron.
When he went to prison as a youth from Beetham he never thought he would be able to live the life he currently has, he said.
“I am doing good with all praise and thanks to God,” Martin said.
Allan Ferguson has also seen scrap iron business change his life.
When Mode Alive burned down in 2007, Ferguson said he was given permission to get rid of the scrap from it.
Now Ferguson has a two-acre scrap yard in Kelly Village which he runs.
Ferguson buys the scrap iron from the hustlers and exports it in containers internationally.
The main players in the market for scrap iron are Turkey, India, and China, he said.
Ferguson is this week scheduled to get a machine that fills a container with scrap iron in a maximum of ten minutes.
That job would normally take four men a day and a half to do.