Plastics

CREEPING UP

Prices for many recycled resins continue to creep up, penny by penny, each month, while others remain steady. And recyclers don’t see any impending downturns on the horizon. On the contrary, they say they think pricing and demand will continue to increase.

"All commodity grades of plastic are in a strong position and will remain strong," says a plastics reclaimer based in the Northwest. However, he says the higher prices are creating problems for consumers of the material, particularly composite decking manufacturers. "They are finding that the price of raw material is going up, and all their models are based on getting [the plastic] for free," he says.

"There is demand for everything right now," a resin reprocessor based in the Midwest says. "We are finding that polystyrene is holding its own and probably not going up in price. Polyethylene is holding its own domestically, but is weakening a bit in China. Polypropylene is strong domestically and holding its own in the export market," he says. "Nothing is coming down right now."

Rising transportation costs continue to exert their effect on plastics reclaimers, further eroding their thin profit margins and regionalizing the plastics reclaiming industry, the Northwest reprocessor says.

(Additional news about plastics recycling markets is available online at www.RecyclingToday.com.)