Ups and Downs ...
Editorial

Recycling's making a buzz around the province (and around the continent, for that matter). And it's not a happy buzz. It's an angry, frustrated one. And the swarm is hovering over all those stockpiled bales of cardboard.

Yes, recycling markets suck. They're the worst they've been for more than a decade (maybe two). Recycling does tend to track with the general state of the economy, which, in much of North America (except maybe here) isn't doing so hot either.

Recycling, like grain, is tied to the world economy. Decisions made in Shanghai affect the price of cardboard in Punnichy. That's just the way it is. We can try to help with collectives and businesses that create local demand (and SWRC does support the co-operative marketing of recyclables, by the way), but the reality is that global market cycles will always influence our situation.

This doesn't mean we should abandon recycling and start calling for other ways to deal with our waste resources. We don't need to be developing expensive plans to bury or recover the energy from cardboard. Don't start creating permanent solutions for temporary problems.

Take a walk down memory lane with me. Back about fifteen years. Ah, the good ol' days. Recycling markets were amazing. Cardboard was selling for more than $200 / tonne. The price of high grade paper was so good that, for a while, you could actually make money by buying a tonne of new paper and selling it on the recycling market! There was incredible competition to get paper from consumers and businesses. Businesses were putting drop'off bins in front of other companies' bins and people were running around looting recycling bins and making money. Those were heady times.

Now, if you started a recycling business during that period, you likely didn't do your homework. Cycles, folks. And that was the top of one that we haven't seen since. The equivalent of a hundred year flood. The bad thing about cycles is that after you hit the top, they go back down.

And the good thing about cycles is that when you hit the bottom, you go back up.

(Source: Feb. 2008 WasteWatch)

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