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happens every summer. In the fall PET number crept back up and most believe they'll continue rising until summer (when there is increased supply) when they will likely fall again. Eureka continues to engage with several brands directly about how to connect their corporate commitments to using recycled content with the actual supply chain to realize the flow of PET bottles back into PET bottles. HDPE Color followed a similar trend as PET but the sale of this material is more reliant on the agriculture industry, as much of this material gets made into drainage tile and piping for farms. When there is significant uncertainty (such as due to a pandemic or concerns about ability to trade agricultural products to other countries) farmers tend not to invest in new irrigation infrastructure, which can negatively impact the HDPE Color markets. HDPE Natural is the same type of plastic as HDPE Color, but because it has no coloring added it is a more versatile product and can be turned into any type of product. Once colorant is added you can only recycle it into darker products. HDPE Natural prices remained relatively high this year and were the steadiest pricing of all plastics. The third type of plastics we sort, polypropylene (PP, #5) started out strong in 2022 and similar to HDPE Natural, brand demand for this material has drove the price up for most of the year but it too decreased in the summer. Similar to other plastics experts expect this price to rise in the Spring as long as supply chain and staffing issues don't cause significant disruptions. Metals markets strengthened significantly in the spring of 2022 as the Ukraine war started. This is because Russia is a major exporter of aluminum and the sanctions against Russia drove up demand for the material in other places. These prices began to fall in the summer as demand decreased due to the economy slowing down. Even with the decrease aluminum has remained the most valuable material in the stream (unlike 2021 when HDPE Natural was worth more for a few months). Experts believe that aluminum pricing will remain higher than other materials, although this material is especially sensitive to the impacts of tariffs and trade agreements as well as supply chain issues. Basket values last year started strong at the beginning of the year and reached a peak in late spring. However, by the end of the year basket values fell to about a third or a quarter of what they were so that the value of the material was less than the cost of the processing. Most experts are optimistic that this is close to the low for this time and that basket values will increase in the spring and potentially cover processing costs by late spring or summer. Page 58 of 67