Low oil prices hurting recycling industry

[bugandbibs]

I've read several articles like this, but there are profits and then there are profits is the problem.

We have Waste Managment and we receive a credit back every month based on how much recyclables they sell. I have never not gotten a credit, which only happens once their profits are over a certain threshold.

I'm sure it's true they aren't making what they thought they would, but I wonder how much of it is general corporate "there is never enough profit" similar to O&G industries.

[downtoearth]

I can see this. I took a great class on recycling at grad school that talked about tires being used in concrete and all sorts of industrial recycling. When the little bits make a difference, it's done, but when the cost to add that recycling stream or clean that recycling stream before adding back in is too low, you don't use those recycled items.

Our city handles the recycling, so it's a municipal cost and right now you put all glass and plastics with #5 and higher directly into a garbage can b/c they can't sell those (the market is also saturated). We can still recycle plastic #1-#4, cans (aluminum and tin), and newspaper/magazines.