Our own Boulder County Eco-Cycle is suffering from an industry-wide slump. Demand from China is down, and paper prices have dropped by half in the last 5 years. Currently, it costs facilities money to recycle glass, and while the amount of ultra-thin plastics keeps increasing there is very little money to be made recycling it. And due to the ever-expanding use of technology and online news consumption, there has been a significant drop in highly-profitable newsprint available.
All of these factors threaten the recycling facilities, which see a never-ending supply of incoming material to process. Eco-cycle, a non-profit with 67 employees that also maintain outreach and education programs, has had to dip into it's reserves to cover profit shortfalls since 2011. Unlike other facilities that have stopped recycling costly materials, Eco-cycle has expanded the list of items it receives through CHaRM, the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials. The organization cites a priority to divert waste from going to the landfills over just making money.
Eco-cycle will be obtaining a few new pieces of equipment this coming up year that should help their processes, including a second fiber bailer for cardboard, which is in good supply and highly-profitable to recycle. In addition, instead of paying rebates to haulers dropping off single-stream residential recyclables, they will be charged a nominal fee.
Eco-cycle states that there is no immediate threat to the organization during this low point in the market. Even so, it's important to remember to support the things you appreciate lest they go away - so put your money where your mouth is. If you'd like to make a donation to the organization, you can do so HERE.
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