Brooklyn residents who buy and sell scrap metal say, like many other industries, business has plummeted amid the economic recession.

According to Tim Fulton, who owns TNT Scrap Metal in Williamsburg, a van loaded with scrap metal pieces, like refrigerators, could bring in up to $600 before the recession. Now, Fulton says, the same load would earn less than $100.

Fulton, and other Brooklyn residents in the industry, say scrap metal prices have dropped almost 70 percent. Due to the global recession, the local scrap metal market is suffering.

Experts say a decrease in production and manufacturing in countries like China, which used to fuel the U.S. scrap metal market, has damaged the scrap metal industry.

Some residents say they will continue to collect scraps for sale, because any cash is better than nothing. TNT now pays between three and seven cents per pound, which is about half what the company paid last summer.