Recycling Market Feeling Effects of Economic Downturn
As the economy continues to suffer, so does the recycling industry. As consumer demand has slowed, companies have concurrently slowed their demand for raw materials to create new products, creating a widespread surplus of materials across the nation and driving down prices.
Some products have been hit harder than others:
- Mixed paper have dropped to $20 to $25 a ton from $105 in October.
- Tin is now down to $5 per ton from $327 a year ago.
- Cardboard that sold for about $135 a ton in September is now going for $35 a ton.
- Plastic bottles have fallen from 25 cents to 2 cents a pound.
- Aluminum cans dropped nearly half to about 40 cents a pound.
- Scrap metal tumbled from $525 a gross ton to about $10.
On the upside, domestic demand for glass is still up, stabilizing the price of reusable glass.
Last year, Americans recycled about 150 million tons of material (including 80 million tons of in iron and steel), supporting an industry that employs about 85,000 with $70 billion in sales, said Bob Garino, director of commodities at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc.
Many recyclables are shipped to Asian countries that use the material to make products that are shipped backed to the U.S. to be sold. Recently, some electronics recyclers have come under scrutiny for these practices as they send end-of-life electronics overseas.
“I don’t know if we are at the bottom yet, bouncing along the bottom or we have new lows to achieve,” Garino said. At this point, many recyclers are hoping to weather the downturn in hopes of an upward moving market in the spring.
- "Tin Price Comparison Guide" Global Info Mine http://www.infomine.com/investment/historicalcharts/showcharts.asp?c=Tin.
- (12/08/2008). "A Sign of the Times..." Ecoproducts.com http://www.ecoproducts.com/cms/blogs/post/6.html.
- (12/07/2008). "Recycling Industry Ailing Amid Economic Downturn" FOXNews.com http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,463175,00.html.
As of June 17th 2011 we have upgraded our comment system to use Facebook comments.
The below comments are closed and are listed for historical purposes.
mariano valenciaIII
posted on December 10th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
id like to have some information with regards to our all electronics board used for converters so many scrap .and is there a way to make it money instead of trashing in the garbage.witch is hazardous to earth.
Rico Swank
posted on January 27th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I’d like to know where she is getting her numbers in regards to the lowering prices.
Jennifer Berry
posted on January 28th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Hi Rico,
I’ve updated our bibliography to reflect my sources. You can find a number of price indexes across the Internet for almost every product that is recyclable. You may have to dig around a bit, however, because many of the prices are restricted to paying members of groups.
Thanks!
2009 AF&PA Recycling Awards - Earth911.com
posted on April 17th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
[...] and recycling goal. The industry hopes that paper recovery rates will increase in 2009, despite a 2008 decrease in demand for raw materials. These awards will recognize and reward those continuing their successful recycling efforts during [...]
chris
posted on April 24th, 2009 at 8:35 am
well i think there is alot to be done, really in the cities where we dont really look at much because maybe those are the wons that hurt so bad from exposed wastes.