RECYCLERS LOOKING FOR MARKETS

Recyclers in the region are faced with market doldrums that overshadow even the dog days of summer. Markets for some materials have dried up worse than the parched local creeks. Only one material, aluminum, appears to have a bright spot in the future.

Some recyclers are considering offering a Requiem funeral service for newspaper recycling at this time. They blame several factors for the dilemma.

"The market is just about dead," declared Roger Friedrich, owner of Heartland Resource Recovery. "The demand is very poor."

Steve Triplett, solid waste coordinator and head of the city's recycling program, agrees. "The market is glutted. We were getting $25 a ton in April, then down to $10 a ton around June 1, and now we have a hard time getting mills to take it."

Currently, the city spends $75 to $100 to haul a 12 to 15 ton load to Jefferson Smurfit in St. Louis, which is accepting it but not paying for it.

Roger Friedrich of Heartland Resource Recovery is developing an alternative use for used newspaper as bedding for livestock. Some university studies have shown shredded newspaper is superior to straw. Triplett sees the concept as a viable option.

The picture for aluminum recycling is somewhat shinier than newspaper salvaging. Plummeting prices may have bottomed out and are rebounding for the empty beverage cans. After holding steady for awhile, the prices went up a few cents per pound about 10 days ago.

The city is holding its stock of aluminum, waiting for the price to improve more. It does not handle a large quantity of aluminum, since most people take it to private companies, such as Sides Metal Recycling or National Metal Recycling, which pay for it.

"The prices peaked last fall on aluminum," said Richard Jones of National. The company now pays 27 to 30 cents a pound for aluminum. Jones speculates on his own that the market may turn around more when the national economy picks up and demand for durable goods increases.

Missouri recyclers are faring better than their Illinois counterparts in glass recycling. Across the river, Southern Illinois recyclers have major problems with green glass. The state's main buyer of green glass, Owens-Brockway, said demand for new green glass has dwindled.

In Missouri, the market has not clouded for the state's recyclers. One reason is the American National Can Company's Foster Forbes Glass Division plant in Pevely, south of St. Louis in Jefferson County.

"We buy all the glass containers we can find," said spokesman Mick Oldham. The company's ovens produce up to 2.5 million brown beer bottles daily, primarily for Anheuser-Busch Co. While much of the glass in the bottles is composed of local sand and soda ash, at least one-fourth of the glass is derived from recycled glass.

The 10-year-old plant uses colored and clear recycled glass in its manufacturing process.

Triplett said the Foster Forbes plant pays the city $48 a ton for colored glass and $44 for clear, prices that have remained constant since Jan. 1. It usually sends ten tons a month to the plant. But this may be the tip of the iceberg. "We will get a lot more when the curbside recycling program goes city-wide Oct. 1," Triplett said. "We will get at least four times and maybe 10 times more glass then."

Friedrich said that Foster Forbes was paying between $70 and $80 a ton in 1990, and Jefferson Smurfit in St. Louis, which was paying $.02 a pound, is no longer paying for glass.

The local recyclers concur the recycling market is vacillating in general and some areas, such as newspaper recycling, need an impetus.

"The recycling market is getting more volatile," Friedrich warned. "The system is overloaded. Recyclers are getting in too much material and not having enough sales. It will get worse."