Recycling Firms More Valuable as Oil Prices Climb
by Kristin Underwood, San Diego, CA on 08. 4.08
Image: Flickr
The Independent reported over the weekend that recycling firms are seeing a huge boost in the value of reused materials as the cost of oil and virgin resources continue to rise.
One Massachusetts area firm noted prices of "$900 a bale for aluminum, $150 a bale for tin cans, $300 for #2 plastic, $70 for cardboard and $40 for mixed paper." Due to the spike in metal prices, recycling firms can see an increase of an extra $100 a ton for metals. These numbers are compounded when recycling firms cart away huge pallets loaded down with piles and piles of recyclables.
Why is recycling now such a big deal? Well a variety of reasons are now aligning to make recycling profitable.
"8% of the global oil production is siphoned off to make plastic each year. Recycled plastic, however, requires 80 per cent less energy to product. Recycled aluminum burns up 95 per cent less energy. Recycled iron and steel use 74 per cent less, while paper requires 64 per cent less."
In addition, one ton of recycled aluminum saves an average of $700 in electricity. And the EPA estimates that if recycling levels increased to 35%, it would save almost 2 billion gallons of gas each year.
As the battle over garbage heats up, and it becomes harder to site new landfills either due to NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) or the latest BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything), and as more and more landfills are closing, reuse and recycling will play a bigger role. Wall Street follows where the money is and that now includes following the value of several recycling firms. As the price of virgin materials continues to climb, and it becomes harder to open new landfills, being the company that makes something out of nothing will become a better place to be.
Limitations for recyclers - they still can't get enough of the right kind of garbage and this sort of thing has happened before. In the 70s and 80s, when oil prices climbed, prices for recycled materials followed, but when things slowed down, the recycled market followed. There is concern that the same will happen this time, except that this time is different - the environmental consciousness is way bigger than it ever was and society is more aware of the need to reuse materials. While recycling is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of environmental protection, lets hope the trend towards increasing recycling continues to grow. This is another blending where economics and environment can work together.
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When one of my friends moved out of his house recently, his parrents left a lot of stuff there so me and a my friend were tasked with moving all the old stuff out. While we were at it, we gathered all kinds of metal scrap, including unused baseboards, a few copper pipes, a bed frame, etc. Ended up with ~300 lbs of steel and 6 lbs of copper, and ended up with $128, split between me and two of my friends, for about an hour extra work (~$40 per hour), plus, if we knew exactly how to do everything, we probably could have done it in about a half hour.
Now, I take any kind of steel, aluminum, or copper out of things in my house. I strip the copper from wires, electric motors, etc and will bring them to the scrap yard when I get enough. It's good for the environment and good for my wallet (and inflation).
This was a great reminder as I have gotten so used to what I put in my recycling container every week that is picked up that there is more that I can do and drop off personally. A little extra coin doesn't hurt.
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On the downside, the costs of collecting and delivering stuff is going up for recyclers as well...
Uhoh, the secret is out, recycling sometimes pays! Welcome to the market fellow scappers. Most people I see scrapping are people in it only for the money, and they seem to do alright, although they tend to drive around old pick up trucks and the like, which usually aren't burning very clean.
Me on the other hand I do all my scrap recycling with a '91 honda accord, which isn't such a gas-sipper that I only need to fill 1 or twice a month at most. This year alone, I've recycle over 3500 lbs of steel, aluminum, copper, brass, batteries, old appliances and more. This is on top of whatever I recycle normally in terms of paper, glass and plastic.
If you want to feel extra green you can also use some of the proceeds from your scrap metal money to pay for recycling your old electronics, such as TVs and computer monitors if you don't have a site which does so for free. (Like me in Ottawa)
The more people that participate in the recycling of materials the more the Recycled Economy will grow!
There's an enormous amount of energy required to smelt metal from ore, especially aluminum, so scrap is basically giving you that energy over again for free. Sadly, only when this economic reality sets in do we start worrying about it.
They should bring back washable bottles. That would create a whole new job sector for people with minimal skills/education.
This is brilliant. I think we're really on the cusp of something quite significant here.
I think another interesting trend is upcycling, which if it beomes the fashion, will really drive up the prices of recycled products.
Now, if only we had better ways of encouraging people and companies to recycle. Some companies already get paid to have recycling taken away. I think towns should reward people who recycle with curbside programs, maybe with tax breaks, the way programs like RecycleBank reward recyclers with other incentives.
Now Treehugger, if you're going to take a photo from Flickr, at least link the image back to the photographer's page. How else can I get a full size image for my wallpaper?
I've been doing the recycling things for many years. I have a regular full time job as well as my recycling job. I usually spend my Sunday mornings driving around in my truck collecting stuff. I collect copper, metal, glass bottles, plastic bottles and aluminum cans. Also if I run into anything else that can be recycled such as paper or cardboard I picked it up and make sure it gets recycled. I probably recycle 2 tons of stuff a month. If I didn't do it all these items would end up in the landfill. As well there are people out there who think I'm a bum because of what I do. They have no idea that I make over $100,000 a year at my regular job. It's my hobby and I love doing it. I take the money that I make (approx. $400.00 a month) and use it to pay for my daughters education. I also look at it as my way of offsetting the amount of CO2 that I create. I am definitely carbon neutral.
Recently there has been numerous thefts of catalytic converters from vehicles (sadly the local Red Cross had it's entire fleet crippled). Local recyclers pay good amounts for the metal including the valuable platinum inside. This is on top of the tens of thousands of dollars of copper wire that has been stolen from public utilities.
Sadly there is a downside to recycling. Sometimes people have to replace perfectly good equipment that was stolen for recycling. Still, it is a minor fraction of the recycling market.
Hey Doug,
That's interesting. People stealing to recycle. I can't help but see a marketing opportunity there for a company than can get it right.