The five largest haulers in North America reported first-quarter 2023 financials, with some seeing prices recover from a slump. | L.O.N DSLR Camera/Shutterstock
Depressed commodity prices continued to batter the bottom lines of large publicly traded curbside recycling businesses during the first quarter, although some MRF operators are now seeing steadily increasing values.
Republic Services is one of several major haulers that benefitted from higher commodity prices in the first quarter of this year. | Iv-olga/Shutterstock
Higher commodity prices continue to drive revenues and profits for the largest waste and recycling haulers in North America.
Recycled fiber prices mean a lot to WestRock, which takes in about 8 million pounds of the material each year. | Luca Pbl/Shutterstock
WestRock consumes millions of tons of OCC and other recovered fiber each year, so the paper products giant would love to know as much as anybody else what the future has in store for bale pricing. Continue Reading
The average price of a ton of material in Q4 of 2022 was 28% less than in the previous quarter. | ADragan/Shutterstock
The blended average price of recovered material dropped again in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to a recent market report. Continue Reading
Paper markets are a mixed bag, with some producers completing or nearing completion on new mills and others wrestling with flagging sales. | Huguette Roe/Shutterstock
Cascades is very close to reopening a Virginia mill that has gone through a containerboard conversion, and Domtar has completed a $350 million project in Tennessee.
Many recycling experts see China’s imports curtailment as an opportunity to rebuild domestic recycling infrastructure. A recent workshop in Portland, Ore. fostered conversations on how to begin doing that in the Pacific Northwest, a region that has long been fairly export dependant.
Kruger packaging aims to produce 200,000 tons of recycled material each year at its facility in Place Turcot, Québec. | BAO Images Bildagentur/Shutterstock
Kruger Packaging will manufacture 100% recycled saturating kraft board after it modernizes a Montreal mill. Continue Reading
Executives expressed mixed opinions about whether commodity prices would increase or remain flat in 2023. | Courtesy of Republic Services
A late-year crash in commodity prices crippled what would have otherwise been a strong 2022 for some of the largest recyclables sorting and marketing operations in North America.
The late-2022 rise in PET values has extended into the new year, with the recycled plastic grade seeing a 12% bump this month.