Scrap metal yards told to suspend operations

Scrap met­al yards across Trinidad and To­ba­go are be­ing told to sus­pend op­er­a­tions fol­low­ing the ex­piry of a le­gal or­der that ex­tend­ed the time for the in­dus­try to op­er­ate un­der its ex­ist­ing arrange­ments.

In a pub­lic no­tice, the Min­istry of Trade, In­vest­ment and Tourism said Le­gal No­tice No. 381 of 2025, the Scrap Met­al (Ex­ten­sion of Time) (No. 2) Or­der, 2025, ex­pired on Oc­to­ber 14.

The min­istry said the Scrap Met­al Act, 2022, is now in ef­fect and warned that the ap­plic­a­ble reg­u­la­tions could re­sult in statu­to­ry penal­ties and fines.

It said it would work with the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) to mon­i­tor com­pli­ance and en­force the law.

The min­istry added that a fur­ther no­tice would be is­sued once a sub­se­quent le­gal no­tice came in­to ef­fect.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Scrap Iron Deal­ers As­so­ci­a­tion had ear­li­er ad­vised op­er­a­tors to close their yards from Sep­tem­ber 15, pend­ing the re­new­al or ex­ten­sion of the li­cences re­quired to op­er­ate legal­ly.

In a state­ment signed by as­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Al­lan Fer­gu­son, the as­so­ci­a­tion said deal­ers could not legal­ly pur­chase, col­lect, process or ex­port scrap met­al with­out valid li­cences.

The as­so­ci­a­tion ac­knowl­edged the po­ten­tial im­pact on thou­sands of peo­ple, in­clud­ing yard own­ers, em­ploy­ees, col­lec­tors and their fam­i­lies who de­pend on the in­dus­try for their liveli­hoods.

It said it re­mained com­mit­ted to work­ing with the Gov­ern­ment, par­tic­u­lar­ly the Min­istry of Trade, In­vest­ment and Tourism, to re­solve the out­stand­ing li­cens­ing is­sues and al­low op­er­a­tions to re­sume.

The as­so­ci­a­tion urged mem­bers to com­ply with the law while await­ing fur­ther up­dates.

Stake­hold­ers seek­ing in­for­ma­tion can con­tact the min­istry's Trade Li­cence Unit at 701-1440, 701-1443 or 701-1415, or email [email protected].