Back at Junk Value, Recyclables Are Piling Up

[groovedaddy]

Trash has crashed.

The economic downturn has decimated the market for recycled materials like cardboard, plastic, newspaper and metals. Across the country, this junk is accumulating by the ton in the yards and warehouses of recycling contractors, which are unable to find buyers or are unwilling to sell at rock-bottom prices.

Ordinarily the material would be turned into products like car parts, book covers and boxes for electronics. But with the slump in the scrap market, a trickle is starting to head for landfills instead of a second life.

“It’s awful,” said Briana Sternberg, education and outreach coordinator for Sedona Recycles, a nonprofit group in Arizona that recently stopped taking certain types of cardboard, like old cereal, rice and pasta boxes. There is no market for these, and the organization’s quarter-acre yard is already packed fence to fence.

“Either it goes to landfill or it begins to cost us money,” Ms. Sternberg said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/business/08recycle.html

[Luciferous]

1. Interesting article

Thanks for sharing. I never really thought about what happened
to my recycling once it was picked up... haven't heard
anything about our recycling program being shut down, so I
guess things are still okay in this area. 

[groovedaddy]

2. I've had people contend that most material put in recycling bins ends up

in the landfill any way, but I've never seen any proof of that.

[eleny]

3. I heard about this on the radio this morning

We always recycle at a Shriners bin in our neighborhood. They use the money they earn for their children's hospital. I hope this all turns around soon.

[kestrel91316]

4. Well, given that most Americans (including me) can no longer afford to

BUY STUFF, we aren't generating much in the way of recyclables these days............So it balances out.

When life gets down to the bare bones, one notices that "reduce, reuse, recycle" puts recycle LAST. And of course in the old days there was always "use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without".

If there is no longer any market for recycled plastic, then I for one wil be trying very hard to avoid buying anything packaged in plastic or made of plastic (unless it is expected to have a long useful life).