8A, Approve Contract with Eureka Recycling

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China and India have virtually stopped buying scrap steel, copper, used paper and other products because of the recession. U.S. manufacturers that use recycled materials in car parts, packaging, insulation and other products also don't need as much because U.S. consumers are buying fewer vehicles, appliances and new homes. The result is a huge backup in recycled materials nationally -- and much lower prices for the bales of paper and compacted cubes of plastic and aluminum that firms such as Waste Management, Minnesota's largest recycler, can process and sell. "We continue to encourage people to recycle at high levels, and hopefully the market will come around," said Waste Management spokeswoman Julie Ketchum. "We're waiting it out with everyone else, with the national economy the way it is. " The company does not intend to increase recycling fees for residences, Ketchum said, but it has raised rates for some of its commercial accounts, which include grocery stores, shopping malls and other businesses. Market fell faster, steeper Recycling has had its ups and downs, including a rough spot in 1997. But nothing this dramatic has occurred since the 1970s, said David Hopkins, a professor at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. "This is probably a larger swing in terms of the speed of it happening, and the severity of it," he said. Wastepaper was selling for $100 to $120 per ton in October, Hopkins said. In only six weeks it has dropped to $15 to $25 per ton. Copper, steel and other metals have dropped by about 80 percent, aluminum cans by about 50 percent, and some plastics by more than 90 percent, Hopkins said. Minnesota may be better off than some states because its recycling programs have developed many local markets, such as plastic lumber manufacturers and glass container firms, said Wayne Gjerde of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). Coastal states, on the other hand, tend to ship more of their recyclables abroad and now have few alternatives, he said. Gjerde, the state's recycling market development director, knows one thing that won't happen in Minnesota, regardless of how bad the markets get. "No one can landfill material that is collected for recycling," he said. "That is against state law." Minneapolis is in relatively good shape. Young said its recycling program requires residents to sort materials into separate compartments for paper, plastic, glass, aluminum and other items. That makes the recycling streams "cleaner," with fewer contaminants, she said, and desirable even in a slow market.