TRENTON, NJ - New information in the great education debate over recycling. Recycling ranks right up there with preventing forest fires and not littering.
It has taken years, but we all now get the need to recycle.
Americans currently recycle a third of our trash, up from .10 back in 1980. Some of you go out of your way to recycle because it’s the right thing to do, say experts, until the recycled materials lose their value.
Part of our “green” industry is turning “red”. John Scarpati recycles siding, cans and cars by buying scrap and then selling it to mills to be turned into manufacturing parts. “The demand is just not there right now.”
He traces the slowdown at this business to the summer Olympics in Beijing when demand from China went down hill at record speed. The rest of the world followed sinking prices and his bottom line.
“I just don’t want to have to sell something for a quarter that I paid $.70 or $.80 for,” complains Scarpati.
So, Scarpati is stockpiling scrap waiting for prices to rise. It may be a long wait. Prices for scrap aluminum siding have plummeted since the end of September, falling 50% in the last 60 days.
The trend mirrors the broader economic collapse.
Prices for recycled cardboard and paper nose-dived, too. Across town from Scarpati, instead of paying people to drop off their boxes and paper, the county is charging them. It’s an interesting economic lesson for Harvard University, as well.
Rob Gogan is the Waste and Recycling Services Manager for Harvard. “I got a letter that said instead of paying you $10 a ton, now we’re going to have to charge you $10 a ton.”
At this writing, Harvard is being charged $20 a ton, but reports it’s still cheaper than sending recyclables to a landfill. Environmentalists stress there’s more than money at stake.
Eric Goldstein with the Natural Resources Defense explains, “Recycling also saves biodiversity, because we’re not cutting down ancient forests in order to produce paper and it uses far less water, fewer chemicals and less energy.”
Ideals environmentalists hope will not be torn to shreds by a tough economy.
