Rolling steady: much like the Great Prairie, Midwest recycling markets have been level this year

Recycling Today, Sept, 2005 by Curt Harler

Hakenkamp notes a bit of irony in the solid, long-standing aluminum recycling programs. Businesses typically provide containers for workers to toss aluminum drink cans. The cans go to a good cause, like Habitat for Humanity. "But the vending machines are moving more to plastic," she says. "A lot of that part of the market is not in the loop."

Dreckmann is quite pleased with the prices plastic and other materials are fetching in Wisconsin. Although late summer saw some downturn in light of seasonal factors, he says he had little reason to complain.

"Plastic stayed extremely strong," he says. Madison is getting $540 per ton for PET and $390 for HDPE. Newsprint and corrugated were fetching prices in the $90 per ton range.

"We're in a fairly steady time," Krughoff says.

Joseph says he is pretty positive, too, given no shocks from the news. The mini-mills and the foundries in the region have been buying regularly.

"I think it will be good in the second half," Joseph says. "The only thing that might turn that around is if we have something disastrous happen like a terrorist attack on our soil."

Marynowski sees short-term steadiness on the ferrous scrap side. "Over the next few months you will see a recovery in prices," he says. He notes this is part of normal rise and fall. "This year we dropped too much," he says. "Last year, the prices went too high. It's all rebounds and swings."

Through August and September, he says he expects prices to firm and get stronger. But he says he has no clue six months down the road. "The world market we deal with today has too many factors to predict what will happen that far out," he says.

MADISON AVENUES

The municipal recycling program in Madison, Wis. has made a commitment to new equipment ... in fact, to a whole new way of collection.

We are undertaking a big change We'll be going to a single-stream, automated collection system on Sept 12," says George Dreckmann, recycling coordinator for the city Madison has been distributing carts throughout the summer in anticipation of the switchover.

Dreckmann, says the city's recycling program has been doing well gathering material. Yet the collection has been labor-intensive. However, when it comes to getting money for change, there always is the friction between the short-term capital costs of a project vs. the long-term savings.

"We've been looking at automation for six to eight years," he says. "We finally were able to work with the new mayor who shares our enthusiasm for automated collection."

The public has supported the city's recycling efforts. It is only in the multi-unit area that the Madison program is weak. They typically serve the eight-unit and under buildings One reason. Dreckmann acknowledges, is the old program required students and others to get bags for recycling. Since bins were not used, the bags required people to take another step to use the system. "By and large, we have good public support. This should improve things," Dreckmann says.

The author is a Recycling Today contributing editor based in Cleveland. He can be reached at curt@curtharler.com.