There was a traffic jam on Meadville’s dead-end Mead Avenue last weekend, and every vehicle was lined up to go to the same place — Meadville Metal.

Everything from couples with cars crammed full of bags holding aluminum cans to professional haulers carrying cars and parts in their trailers were waiting on line. They were all out to turn their useless junk into cold, hard cash.

When the economy goes bad, scrap yards and recyclers get busy, according to Meadville Metal owner Norman Eaton.

Two major factors are sending business through the roof at places like Eaton’s, he said: people looking for an easy way to raise a few more dollars in a bad economy and metal prices hitting historic highs.

Much of the recycled metal — steel, for example — is shipped to countries such as China and India, where demand is skyrocketing due to development. “China and India are going through a revolution,” he said, noting it mirrors that which the United States went through in the 1920s.

China and India are spending $2 billion a year for steel, and the demand has sent prices for scrap soaring. Price for junk steel was 2 cents a pound 28 years ago. Then, it went to 4 cents. Now the average price is 10 cents a pound.

The top item recycled locally is steel, according to Eaton, and it’s pouring in along with just about every other type of metal you can imagine.

“The average (cash paid) per customer one day was $300,” he said, noting some are small payments for a few pounds of aluminum cans, but some are as high as $2,000.

Twenty-eight years ago when Eaton took over the company, it took in about 2,500 tons of copper, aluminum, brass and stainless steel a month. Today, it’s 6,000 tons.

“I have talked with 50 different yards (recycling companies)” across the United States and all are experiencing the same thing, Eaton said.

Out at Karl Fielding’s Tryonville Salvage Co., “it’s steady all the time,” he said. At Hadley Recycling in Mercer County, nobody was available to talk Friday morning. “We’re all too busy,” said a man who answered the phone.

In some cases, recycling businesses have been so swamped, they’ve had to stop accepting new material. A Tampa, Fla., scrap yard had to close for a few days to allow workers to process the materials to be shipped. “We got to that point for one day about three weeks ago,” Eaton said.

Once the items are received in the yards, employees then have to cut the material apart and process it for sale.

Meadville Metal employs 20 people, all with a specific job. Eaton explains when items are received, they must be analyzed to determine their content for processing. Once they are processed, the items then are put into another area for shipment.

That’s where people like truck driver Kenny Keltner of Espyville come into play. Keltner, who also recycles, was at the site Thursday to pick up a load of steel to be hauled. “This will go to Neville Island,” he said, adding it then will be put on a barge on the Monongahela River and shipped to the Mississippi River and then on to China.