Recycling makes a comeback as commodity prices recover (Denver)
The market for recycled materials is starting to rise again, one year after prices plunged due to the global recession.
“A year ago the industry was definitely thrown into a tailspin, to say the least,” said Brent Hildebrand, vice pres-ident of recycling for Alpine Waste & Recycling Inc. in Commerce City. “We saw drops in commodity prices of 80 percent. Some dropped more. Cardboard was as high as $140 a ton; it dropped to $10 or $15 a ton — a horrendous drop.”
Prices since have climbed to about 50 percent or 60 percent of what they were before the recession hit in the fall of 2008, he said.
Eric Lombardi, executive director of Boulder nonprofit Eco-Cycle, has spent 25 years in the recycling industry. He’s seen prices go up and down with economic cycles. But in 2008, “We fell off a cliff like I’d never seen before,” Lombardi said.
Meanwhile, the volume of recycled material jumped.
Eco-Cycle’s volume grew 27 percent, to 57,150 tons in 2009 from 45,000 tons in 2008, said Marti Matsch, company spokeswoman.
Read the full story in the Denver Business Journal.
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