How a Financial Crisis in the Recycling Industry is making it More Difficult to Recycle
It’s not often talked about in mainstream media but for all the positive news there’s been in the last decade on recycling in Canada, there’s a crisis that has happened in the last couple years that is in need of address.
Recycling works because it provides financial rewards to the organizations and owners of the facilities who produce recycled products. When one takes away or changes the rules of the marketplace that makes something like recycling plastic financially viable, it changes the way we recycle. Today’s worldwide recycling industry has had things happen wherein it’s made it more difficult to recycle select products.
Globally, there’s been a crash in the market for recyclables. Across North America, cities are having to choose how they are to recycle bottles, cans, and plastics, sometimes opting to send these to landfills because they either don’t have the facilities or they don’t know how to derive profit from these materials. In the United States in particular, there are reports of paper-filled sorting centers with nowhere to send their materials, cities having to pay high processing fees to take materials that no longer have much financial profit attached, and some recycling centers that have shut down completely.
For the past two decades, recycling profits have been on the rise. For the first time in a long time, we are in a period where some plants are generating negative financial return. Why this is the case has much to do with China, the world’s largest recyclables buyer. Earlier this year, China began a new anti-pollution program which rejects any paper, metal, or plastic waste that is not minimum 99.5 percent pure. That’s a huge barrier as many American and Canadian recycling processing plants producing bales of paper and plastic do so at maximum rates of 97 percent free of contaminants.
In 2017, a bale of American-made mixed paper was worth $100 per ton. As we head into 2019, some processing plants are paying as much as $15 per ton just to get rid of these bales. Larger companies are paying to survive and many smaller companies are struggling to stay in business. Across the United States, dozens of municipalities have either had to reduce their recycling pick-ups, suspend existing recycling programs, or completely cancel recycling initiatives. The long-term consequences and trends of what’s ongoing in recycling is unclear but speaking from the today’s perspective, things are really tough for a lot of facilities out there right now.
Until the market rebounds, more effective and pure recycling production is required. Cross-contamination is something that is in dire need of address, especially in the present era of single stream recycling dominance. More washing of bottle and cans, and proper sorting of materials, and other strategies are going to be central to ensuring Canadian and American recycling markets turn profitable once again. The financial crisis in recycling is only going to grow until changes are made.
If you’re seeking waste management or recycling in Toronto, Core Mini Bins can help. We’ll connect you with the resources required to ensure you minimize your waste output and maximize the potential of the materials you’re not using. The era of sloppy waste management is over. Partner with a company who knows how, where, and why to recycle. Core Mini Bins is just a phone call away.
