Recycle Prices Plummet

Not Just the Stock Market Falling

With the current uncertainty in world markets the price of recycle material has been falling like a rock since the end of October. Cardboard which once fetched $200 a tonne is barely worth $20 now in just a few short weeks.

Scrap metal prices have also fallen to the point where mountains of scrap metal are accumulating waiting for the prices to rebound. There simply is no demand for the scrap right now as manufacturers worldwide drastically reduce their consumption.

What will that mean locally? The recycle centre on Kenworth Rd. is already considering refusing some materials in the not too distant future as they are running out of room to store material. The cost to ship the material is greater than what will be paid which means the center either refuses materials or they ship them out at a lose. Obviously you can't run a business at a loss for very long, unless you are a form of government.

The whole system of recycling only works if all components continue to operate and if there is no demand to recycle then the material becomes garbage until the price rebounds. So how long can we continue to pay to store garbage?

Of course it could be that the whole stream will begin to slow down as consumers begin to consume less if financial predictions are true.

It would also help if the local newspapers quit cutting down trees and went strictly to an electronic version of their product. No trees were harmed in the production of Nanaimo Info Blog. :^)