An article in a recent Resource Recycling newsletter on the 2019 Resource Recycling Conference and Trade Show in New Orleans caught our eye… Probably because part of it concentrated on the recycling of paper materials. As one of the speakers related, “Fiber is the ‘elephant in the room’ as far as the value of the residential mix that municipalities receive.” (Elephant in the Room = an obvious problem or difficult situation.)
This part of the conference featured experts from the American Forest & Paper Association, the Gemini Corporation, the Continuous Improvement Fund, Sustana Fiber, and Pioneer Recycling Services. As to why recycled paper was important in the conference, one member mentioned about 75 percent of the material that often comes into a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) is paper. Of Course, when China stopped taking most of our recycled paper materials, it made a very significant change in what those collecting this material could do with it or where to sell it. China went from taking hundreds of thousands of tons each year to taking practically none.
And unfortunately, as one speaker commented, “The generators of this material are totally disconnected from the price. They have no price signal and so they don’t respond.” This means they continue to collect as much of it as they can, not knowing what the market for it might be or if they might even have to sell it at a loss. While many of us agree recycling is the right thing to do, if the company or city collecting it is losing money on it, it is hard to justify. The speaker offered his opinion that, “… volatility is the norm in the pricing of recyclables and that stability is the exception.” (288 words)
