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 »

The market for recycled commodities has declined significantly for January.  This results from a continuation of a ban on new shipments to Vietnam and the normal decline in seasonal demand we experience every year at this time both of which were highlighted in our comments last month.  Let me briefly review each of these factors…. Read more »

The market for recycled commodities has declined modestly for December.  This results from a variety of factors including the normal seasonal drop in demand this time of year, the expiration of the few remaining import permits to China and the decision by Vietnam to stop all imports of MIX paper.  Let me review each in… Read more »

The market for recyclable commodities has declined slightly for November.  While any decline is cause for concern, students of recyclable commodity pricing will note that pricing this Fall has held up much better than in previous years.  We are seeing better than normal pricing for this time of year  because of both the very strong… Read more »

The market for recyclables has improved slightly for October which, cateris paribas, (all other things being equal) was not expected.  The modest price improvement stems mostly from an increase in OCC pricing.  Normally, this time of year we expect pricing to decline due to seasonal reductions in demand for containerboard rolls with the end of… Read more »

The market for recyclables has declined modestly during September.  Both paper and plastics pricing declined with the most significant drop in the plastics grades. We attribute this broad based decline in pricing to the normal seasonal changes in demand for paper and plastic products.  For paper, most of the extra demand from the Harvest and… Read more »

The value of Residential Mix has improved for August primarily due to a modest increase in paper pricing.  Paper demand is very strong currently in the eastern half of our country and the Westcoast mills have responded to this.  This improvement may be short lived as seasonal factors are likely to assert themselves soon. The… Read more »

The market for most recyclables has held steady (plastics & metals) or moved modestly upward. (paper)  The net impact has been an improvement in ResMix pricing for July. We believe the improving paper pricing is related to the impact of both seasonal demand and product substitution both of which we discussed last month.  To review,… Read more »

The market for the majority of recycling commodities has moved upward in June, including for MIX paper which is very encouraging. Let me try to explain how this occurred, beginning with the plastic grades.  A significant portion of recycled plastics finds its way to the construction, landscaping, irrigation and outdoor furniture industries.  All of these… Read more »

The market for ResMix received in May has changed little from the pricing in April.  Notably, that doesn’t begin to tell the whole story of changes to the recycling market over the past four weeks. Prior to May 3rd Pioneer had indications that the market for OCC cardboard would move up by $20+/Ton in May. … Read more »