Demand for Recyclables Drops, Causing Stockpiles and Slashing Prices

In the past few months, intense demand and high prices for recycled materials have disappeared, giving way to stockpiles of unwanted materials and halved rates.

Leading up to the Beijing Olympics, during which numerous Chinese factories and plants were shut down, Chinese companies intensified their imports of paper, plastic and other materials to recycle into new products.

Since then, demand has fallen drastically, with the drop attributed to a number of factors.

Consumers are buying fewer products made in China, and with fewer products being shipped overseas, there is a lesser need for boxes and packaging materials to move those items, according to The Journal of Commerce.

Chinese producers, therefore, need fewer materials to make packaging and items."A lot of the material was going to China to make boxes for all the things they were shipping back to the United States," Bruce Savage, spokesman for the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries in Washington, told the Sacramento Bee.

"When they aren't producing products, they don't need the packaging materials."

Some importers are now refusing to claim shipments of recyclables, The Journal reports, and others are negotiating lower prices for shipments that are already at sea, effectively forcing exporters to accept a price cut.

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Source: Greenbiz.com