By Steve Huffman
shuffman@salisburypost.com
EAST SPENCER ó The downturn in the economy has affected demand for recyclables.
Not long ago, recycled steel cans were fetching $250 a ton. Now, no one is buying them.
There is still a demand for recycled aluminum, but it’s nothing compared to what it was. Aluminum used to sell for $1.40 a pound. The price is now 30 cents a pound.
With the exception of aluminum and white paper, the recyclables housed at Rowan County’s Recycling Processing Center on Long Street are doing little more than gathering dust.
“It’s a rough time for us, it’s across the board,” said Lori Swaim, Rowan County’s director of recycling.
She said Rowan County has an advantage over surrounding counties in that its 25,000-square-foot recycling center allows it to hold bailed recyclables until the market turns.
Without that recycling center, the county might have to pay to get rid of its recyclables, something Swaim said other counties are now considering.
She pointed to seven truckloads of mixed paper that are bailed and sitting at the recycling center.
“There are counties out there that absolutely don’t have storage space,” Swaim said. “We’re lucky, we have space to hold them until the market recovers.”
Not long ago, all of this would have seemed unimaginable.
A few years back, the world economy was chugging full steam ahead, with China demanding massive amounts of steel as a result of building in preparation for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
When the Rowan-Salisbury School System was preparing for the construction of Carson High School, building prices soared along with the cost of steel.
“One day, everything was fine,” Swaim said. “The next, nobody was buying.”
She said she expects the situation to turn, but exactly when is anyone’s guess. National economists say the recession is likely to be a long one, several noting the end is nowhere in sight.
According to the Associated Press, scrap steel buyers in Asia are canceling purchases after prices tumbled more than 80 percent in the past five months as demand slumped.
The New York Times reported materials like cardboard, plastic, newspaper and metals are accumulating in recycling warehouses as contractors 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 to landfills rather than toward a second life.
On the West Coast, mixed paper is selling for $20 to $25 a ton, down from $105 in October. Tin is down to $5 a ton, following the $327 it was bringing early last year.
Swaim and Kathryn Jolly, director of Rowan County’s department of Environmental Management, surveyed the warehouse on Long Street earlier this week and reminisced about the days when recyclables were fetching considerably more dollars than they now bring.
Jolly said with the market for recyclables down at the moment, it’s important not to lose focus on the bigger picture.
She said that in much of Europe, landfills are virtually nonexistent, with almost all waste recycled. Jolly said while the market for recyclables in the United States is down, the need to recycle remains strong.
“Even if selling recyclables is just break-even, it’s still saving us landfill space,” she said.