FARMINGTON – Despite the fact that the price for recyclable goods bottomed out toward the end of last year, 2008 was a pretty good year for the Sandy River Recycling Association, the 21 towns it serves and for the Maine Resource Recovery Association (MRRA), a cooperative which markets milk jugs, tin cans glass jars, newspapers, magazines and corrugated cardboard to the world.
“Good enough for a small rebate from MRRA,” said Ron Slater, manager of the Sandy River Recycling Association (SRRA), which processes its members’ recyclables before shipping them to the MRRA. And good enough, added Slater, for the association to lower the cost it charges member towns for processing and transporting their recyclables from $40 to $35 a ton. The rebate will be reflected in the bills sent to the member towns in 2010.
It’s the third time the nonprofit has lowered its cost per ton in recent years, reflecting the steadily rising returns for recyclables that occurred during recent years. But it will probably be some time before we see such prices again, Slater said. Referring to the latest report from MRRA, he noted that a year ago:
Corrugated cardboard received $116 a ton; it now sells for $16 to $21 a ton.
Newspaper received $101 a ton; it now sells for $26 to $31 a ton
Plastic received $726 a ton; it now sells for $216
Scrap metal received $81 a ton; it now costs $15 to $25 a ton to get rid of
It’s not only the prices that are dropping, be they the rate per ton that SRRA charges its members or the prices MRRA receives on the world market, equally important is the drop in tonnage that SRRA is receiving from its member towns, Slater said. To back this up, he noted that SRRA processed about 1,755 tons for its member towns in 2008 or about 65 tons less than the year before. In the five years between 2003 and 2008, there was a decrease of 381 tons.
While the recent economic downturn can explain some of that reduction, Slater believes that interest in recycling has waned over the years and that the SRRA’s Board of Director’s goal for 2009 is to do more recycling education with its member towns.
“Recycling, in good and bad times; it saves a lot of money when it comes to waste disposal,” he said.
