Summer 08 Newsletter
Markets – keep recycling
Recycling markets have been widely affected by the worldwide financial crisis. The markets are cyclical, and we were due for a downturn – but this is a big one. For some products, such as plastics 3 to 7 and paper, there are very limited buyers.
With some hard work, we are managing to still move most of our product – so keep on recycling! Luckily Wanaka Wastebusters has been diversifying in recent years, and we are not totally dependent on high prices for our economic survival.
We are stockpiling paper and some plastics. You can see the big bales out the back. However, things are still moving, today we’re expecting the cardboard to be picked up – pretty much at the same price as we were selling it a year ago.
Our hand-sorting process means we have a very high quality end product with very little contamination. In these tougher times when a smaller amount of product is being bought and sold, that’s critically important and means we have a huge advantage because people are going to choose the quality product.
The New Zealand-based reprocessors are still operating, it’s the export markets which have dried up in the short-term. If there’s a lesson in this, it’s to encourage New Zealand reprocessors and reduce our dependence on overseas markets.
The New York Times published an interesting article last week on the state of the recycling industry in the US.
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