To best understand the market for recyclables in March, one must distinguish between paper and the container grades (metal and plastic) as described below. (If you are short of time – the summary version is that while paper has continued to decline, plastics and metals have increased as is normal this time of year.  The… Read more »

The market for recyclables has continued to move lower in February.  This results from the precipitous decline in demand from Chinese buyers….Stop!!  — Somehow the normal “economist speak” just doesn’t do justice to the current state of the market for recyclables.  A better way to describe the current situation is something like “The market for… Read more »

It’s the beginning of a New Year and an entirely new environment for the Recycling Industry.  Beginning on January 2nd, we started hearing from Chinese buyers that they were cancelling existing orders and requiring bale breaking inspections before any shipments could resume.  Additionally, they made clear that we would be required to meet the new… Read more »

The market for recyclables has mostly moved sideways with the exception of MIX paper which has declined significantly.  Let’s talk about MIX pricing first as this is a case of a classic demand shift. Earlier this year the Chinese announced that they would no longer purchase MIX paper as of Jan 2018.  The announcement alone… Read more »

The market for paper recyclables has moved up in November. The movement has been strong enough to improve the value of ResMix in spite of selected price declines in the plastic grades. To begin this month’s analysis, I must admit that I was not expecting to see a price increase in November given what we… Read more »

The market for recyclable commodities has once again dropped significantly over the past four weeks. This is especially true for the export market where OCC has declined by as much as $55/ton and ONP by $30/Ton. These declines have occurred because of the normal seasonal factor of lower demand in the Fall, as well as… Read more »

Chaos is the word that best describes the market for many recyclable commodities today. Since last month the Chinese government has become more strident in their resolve to ban the importation of MIX paper and all grades of scrap plastic. Mill buyers have become more fearful. Orders for MIX are virtually non-existent and are not… Read more »

The market for all of the residential paper grades declined significantly for August. The why feels like “deja’ vu all over again”. In the past two weeks the Chinese government has announced that they will no longer purchase Mixed Paper as well as all residential scrap plastics of all types by the end of this… Read more »

The market for July, while a mixed bag among the grades, has continued to improve overall, primarily due to increases in MIX Paper and Newspaper. The increase in paper pricing is a continuation of the trend of the past three months where paper pricing is responding to mill demand after the disruption of National Sword… Read more »

The overall yield value for ResMix has improved significantly in June due almost exclusively to an increase in paper pricing, most notably for cardboard. As usual the underlying causes of the improved pricing have both a local as well as an international story. Locally, domestic linerboard and medium mills have full order backlogs and are… Read more »