Recycling in 2008/2009 getting MUCH tougher

An update to my December 7th Blog on Recycling. I have posted a video directly below. If cities paid people to recycle overall recycling would BOOM, in my opinion.



Dec 7th, 2008 post

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081207/recycling_bust.html

Great article that really highlights some of that industry's dynamics.

1) They re-sell the materials to steel producers and paper producers, etc.

2) We have a global glut of raw materials and not enough demand

So who buys the raw materials from re-cyclers when there is already enough raw materials that can be bought cheaply?

"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."

"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.
Most recyclables are shipped to Asian countries that use the material to make products that are shipped backed to the United States to be sold."

Dan Ross