Bottom Drops Out of Recycling Industry

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: NYT/AP

....Just months after riding an incredible high, the recycling market has tanked almost in lockstep with the global economic meltdown. As consumer demand for autos, appliances and new homes dropped, so did the steel and pulp mills' demand for scrap, paper and other recyclables.

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, and scrap metal tumbled from $525 a gross ton to about $100.

It's getting more difficult to find buyers in some markets....

(T)he recycling market has gotten so bad that haulers in Oregon and Nevada who were once paid for recyclables are now getting nothing or in some cases are having to pay to unload their wares. In Washington state, what was once a multimillion-dollar revenue source for the city of Seattle may become a liability next year as the city may have to start paying companies to take their materials.

Some in the business are describing the downturn as the worst and fastest ever....

***

Last year, Americans generated about 254 million tons of trash, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They recycled about 150 million tons of material -- roughly 80 million of that 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., a Washington, D.C.-based trade association that represents more than 1,600 companies worldwide....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Recycling-Bust.html

[Omaha Steve]

1. I work in Public Works

This sums up the Omaha market too.

[LeftyMom]

2. Like everybody else, a lot of the companies are talking layoffs.

[Truth Teller]

3. Off to the Greatest

with sadness!

[pitohui]

4. i hate to say good but good

there was so much money in it that crackheads stole and melted down the entire city of new orleans

for example, after katrina, an artist had $100K worth of sculptures melted down for pennies in scrap

people's catalytic converters were getting stolen out of their cars to melt down for scrap

urns off fucking graves were being stolen and melted down for scrap

your house was being busted into and your air conditioning condensor thingy for which you paid $2K was being stolen and sold for $40 worth of scrap

you can't live like this

we had to either be given the right to shoot all the crackheads or SOMETHING had to give, they were melting down everything and making it impossible for people to have cars or houses

[HughMoran]

6. Let's not recycle because it causes crime?

I know what you're saying about people stealing copper pipes etc. (I've seen that), but I'd never ever in a million years want to place all of the recycled material into the ground - which is what my town may have to do if there's no profit in it. Think bigger - your post sounds very Republican. Shoot people who steal? What?

[DUlover2909]

8. I can see where he's coming from. He's angry.

I wouldn't disparage him by calling him a repuke. I heard stories about people breaking into forclosed houses and stripping out the electrical wiring. That's not proper recycling. It's counter productive.

[pitohui]

15. "she's" angry but yeah that's it, they're ripping out our houses, we can't rebuild because of this

this type of "recycling" is no recycling at all, it's ripping our heating and AC units out of our walls to make fifty bucks and costing us thousands

it's heart breaking

if you show up with a boatload of copper, you should be required to show ID, show an address where you can be found, and if you can't, you can't complete the sale -- period! and if there is noone or it isn't a real ID/address later, yes, the recycling dude needs to be held responsible

[DUlover2909]

17. sorry. I thought about the gender after I posted. Bad habit.

[pitohui]

18. don't worry about it

not a problem, my particular user name may be somewhat deceptive, altho not intentionally so, i've gotten it plenty of times before

[pitohui]

14. the crime in question is destroying new orleans, they're killing us, they're KILLING us

there are people so angry at a recycling scrapyard i won't name, that they are literally suing them for killing their family members in the lower 9th ward, i won't go that far, i don't blame a scrapyard just trying to do their thing for having a barge tossed by katrina or gustav or ike

however you have NO idea of the rage in this area

the crackheads are taking apart our houses, our cars, our artwork, our FUCKING GRAVES, and selling them for pennies on the dollar and while this goes on we can't rebuild houses, cars, artworks, or put urns, plaques, bronzes etc on our fucking graves because it costs us thousands and they steal it for $10

the entire holy cross neighborhood was stolen and sold for its architectural details and no one will say where it went

it's truly distressing

hard to express in words

yeah recycle your fucking coke bottle (or do as i do and don't drink coke at all) but crackheads tearing apart our fucking walls for copper, bronze, etc. -- it's killing us


if someone shows up at your recycling plant w. valuable metals, they need to prove where the metals came from or call the fucking cops -- same as a pawn shop if someone shows up with gold

[HughMoran]

22. That sounds like a really awful situation

I can sympathize, though I don't think the whole recycling industry is to blame, I can see how lower value for scrap may help your situation in the short term.

The situation there really demonstrates the need for government & police involvement - anarchy should not be allowed anywhere in the USA. I grew up in the inner city and we stripped an abandoned building of some cooper pipe and sold it - no questions asked - to a scrap dealer on the other side of town. That's the sort of thing that teenagers do when nobody is looking. Where is law enforcement?

[Robbien]

25. Thanks pitohui. So much we don't know going on in NO

Of course poverty is one reason, but greed is also a main player in this. Without a spotlight on the situation it continues unabated.

Damn

[notadmblnd]

7. Catalytic converters have palladium in them

the spot price for palladium is higher than platinum or gold. They got more than pennies for it.

[DUlover2909]

19. How do catalytic converters work? What do they do?

Just curious in case you know.

[notadmblnd]

21. i know that they are a pollution control device.

other than that, I have no clue how they work.

[progressoid]

23. toxic combustion by-products are converted to less-toxic substances.

A catalytic converter provides an environment for a chemical reaction wherein toxic combustion by-products are converted to less-toxic substances.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalytic_converter

[pam4water]

39. I like the explanation on this page:

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/catalytic-converter2.htm

Even short explanation. Not all the gas is combusted in the engine. Gas is nasty smelling an toxic. The catalytic convert provides a place for the rest of the gas to combust. It also gets ride of most of nitric oxide (NO) and carbon monoxide (CO) produce in the engine. Enough carbon monoxide was building up in cities to case brain damage to children who like near highways, before the catalytic converters. Nitric oxide forms other nasty chemicals when exposed to the atmosphere which contribute to acid rain and global warming.

[Art_from_Ark]

33. You are thinking of rhodium

Rhodium is used in catalytic converters and is still more expensive than platinum or gold. However, while palladium is also used in coverters, at $174/ounce it is much less expensive than platinum or gold.

[pam4water]

38. There is some palladium used. It used to be mostly platinum.

[XemaSab]

27. Don't blame the crackheads

Blame the tweekers. :eyes:

[yardwork]

36. Is scrap the same as recycling? I know that sounds stupid, but I'm asking sincerely.

I know that the price of scrap metal got so high recently that thieves were doing things like you describe. However, I thought that was a complete separate market from recycling newspapers, glass bottles, aluminum cans, and plastic laundry soap bottles.

[HughMoran]

5. This sucks

My town depends on the recycling income - it needs to be profitable so we can expand on it - grrr.

[bemildred]

9. The "free market" fails to do the job again. nt

[Arctic Dave]

10. The smartest thing would be for the municipalities to create

individual collection sites until demand pick up again. DO NOT THROW IT IN THE LAND FILL!

[MrSlayer]

11. I was getting $3 a pound for No.1 copper in the summer.

Now I'm only getting $1.28. Our Xmas stash has been devalued by over half.

[Arctic Dave]

12. The smartest thing would be for the municipalities to create

individual collection sites. DO NOT THROW IT IN THE LANDFILL!! Think long term, prices will return.

[jwirr]

13. We need to stop thinking there is something wrong with every industry

that is failing. This is at least a deep recession if not a depression. Almost all business is going to fail for a time because there is not money for anything. This is a symptom not the cause.

[pitohui]

16. the industry isn't failing but this an industry that's unpopular and has created enemies

some of the crap hurled at the industry is unfair

there's a scrapyard in new orleans that has pretty much become the preferred target of the media and the populace and i really don't think they're evil, they're just...a scrapyard, yanno?

however, it's a fact there is metal in your AC, metal in your heating unit, metal in your catalytic converter, metal in that bronze urn you put on the gravestone--and you pay thousands for these metals that druggies then steal and get less than $100 for-- and you replace them for thousands you don't have--get robbed again for another $40 -- a crackhead needs another forty dollars every fucking day and there are a LOT of crackheads

please understand there is little or no sympathy for the "recycling" industry this time of century when most of the metal being "recycled" is still being used

we can't afford this shite

the industry needs to step up and report on the thieves

no one gives a fuck about cardboard or plastic recycling, it isn't useful for much, wasn't worth much, and was only being recycled as a show pony anyway...how many playgrounds made of recycled cola bottles can one town use?

[Laelth]

24. The problem, of course, is that we tolerate too much poverty in the U.S.

I hear you, though. I live in the city. I have had neighbors lose air conditioners and piping from under their house. I can't keep a lawnmower (I have had four stolen in the five years I have lived here). My wife shares your sentiments and likes to blame the crackheads, but the problem is bigger than that.

If we lived in Canada, we wouldn't have to lock the doors of our houses. Canadians don't. Why? Because they don't have our crushing poverty. The basic needs of Canadian citizens are met. Therefore, poor people in Canada are far less likely to steal.

The United States is a LIBERAL Country.

:dem:

-Laelth

[arikara]

26. Unfortunately we do have to lock doors in Canada

Michael Moore took a bit of dramatic license there. We have poverty, drugs, homelessness and theft too. Inner cities are just as bad as yours. In our quiet rural area, I don't even go out in the back yard without locking the front door. Too many reports of thieves robbing the house while the owner is out in the garden. Its getting worse all the time because we've had exactly the same type of crappy government policies of corporate welfare and making it up by cutting social programs and aid as you have.

I do wish someone would walk off with all the old lawnmowers that the Mr has in the yard though...

[Laelth]

30. I am sorry to hear that.

But it's better to be armed with the truth. Thank you.

:dem:

-Laelth

[Art_from_Ark]

34. Japan has recycled plastic and cardboard for decades

because it is the right thing to do-- it reduces landfill waste, reduces the need to use more oil to produce more plastic, reduces the amount of trees that are cut down, reduces the amount of plastic litter that clutters the roadways. If the thieves in your part of the world weren't stealing scrap, they'd probably be breaking into people's homes and stealing stuff that they could pawn. Your vitriol against the entire recycling industry might be justified from your point of view, but from a larger perspective it is not.

[xchrom]

20. recommend

[sftwrngnr]

28. So whats next...?

We can't afford to recycle? Or wait... I know, just like the whole "cheap oil" mentality, lets just put off doing the right thing because its expensive. Yeah... thats exactly it. Lets just stop recycling NOW because its expensive, never mind the fact that its the right thing for the environment, also, never mind that the actual cost of reprocessing recycled materials is significantly less. Personally, I'd pay a little extra on my utility bill to continue the pickup of recyclable items, because its the right thing to do.

[eilen]

32. We can't afford not to

recycle.

I'm making polar fleece snuggies for my nephews and nieces and it's made out of recycled plastic bottles. I buy recycled paper, recycled ink cartridges, and I recycle clothing. I feed this stuff back into the system so it can recycle again. I think that we have to look at a new paradigm when it comes to looking at what is "profitable" -- instead look to see if it is "sustainable." It is magical thinking to believe how everything should keep expanding and increasing-- that growth and profit is the only rubric. Perhaps this is the paradigm that devalues elderly, the disabled and children.


I believe that perpetuating that myth will undermine our spirits. When in a time of contraction, we will learn and understand that the worth of us, the worth of people is not how much they are earning or buying but how they can gather the things that they know and care and create a place (or life, or living) that is worthwhile. Once we can get the gist of that I hope people will find the stones to fight for it, for their own and their neighbor's humanity. I think that is what our lesson will be.

[EFerrari]

29. I need glasses so badly. Read: "Bolton Drops out of Recycling Industry"

:rofl:

[DeepModem Mom]

31. LOL! We, for sure, don't want to recycle HIM! nt

[JohnAB]

35. Recycling Industry

I feel if thing needs help to stay generated a float or bailed out with money its the Recycling Industry.

If any agency gets a bail out for retooling it should be mandatory by mandate
that there has to be a

1.recycle policy in place,
A. zero wast
B.100% recycling
C.and support structure in place to use recycled materials for future considerations .

Its is better to understand littel than to misunderstand a lot.

John

[outofbounds]

37. Metals seem to be the problem

In my town everything from soda cans to copper are up off the streets. Its almost like the scrap yards have more than they can sell and prices are now deflating. On a positive note the junk has been being removed from the woods and side of roads so the town looks better. When fuel hit $4.00/ gallon is when I noticed more and more trailers with junk on them headed to scrap yards. you can tell when wire has been burned to remove insulation and now our scrap yards are listing who is bringing in what, I guess in order to get a grip on the stealing of materials listed above. There seems to be a noticeable slow down in manufacturing obviously the auto industry where a lot of these materials find their way back into use. Just a layman's thoughts.