According to a recent article on Yahoo, the recycling market is in a slump right along with the rest of the economy. That’s a bit depressing. You can read the entire article here. West Virginia’s largest recycling center, the subject of this article, has put 20 of its 24 workers on reduced hours and informed the principalities from which they accept materials that, until further notice, they will only accept paper.
Evidently, as the demand for cars, appliances and new homes has waned, so has the need for scrap, paper and steel. The article quotes the price of cardboard as dropping from $135 a ton to $35 a ton just since September. 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. Municipalities that were riding high on revenues from the sale of their recyclables are fast approaching the need to pay for having them hauled off. Budgets written with that revenue in mind are going to experience some shortfalls, which will have to be made up somewhere.
The Washington State University Recycling Public Drop-Off Station closed in August and announced that, until further notice, they would only be accepting material from University buildings and departments.
People who were selling scrap to help put food on the table will have to find another way to make ends meet for the foreseeable future. In this economy, that may be easier said than done.
At this point several commercial recyclers are stockpiling their materials in hopes of an upturn. Unfortunately, tied to our plunging national economy, the recycling market may not rebound for some years. Hopefully the growing “Green Revolution” will be able to sustain itself in some fashion even when there is nowhere to drop off our carefully separated recyclables.
As an aside, the article mentions that “most recyclables are shipped to Asian countries that use the material to make products that are shipped back to the United States to be sold”. That doesn’t seem very green!
Be sure and check back tomorrow for the Make it From Scratch Carnival!
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2 comments:
We have been donating a lot lately to local veterans and Salvation Army groups, mainly clothes and small appliances/electronics we are getting rid of before all the gifts start rolling in for the holidays.
Maybe with people having less and buying less, there is actually less to recycle? Any job loss and loss of any "green" practice is kinda sad, though...
Too true Lilli, I hate to see any impediments to the growing green trend. It doesn't take much to make some people get off track!
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