Crash in Global Recycling Market Hits Billings

The Gazette reports a crash in the global recycling market has left Billings businesses scrambling to survive. Scott Berens is the owner of Earth First Aid Recycling in Billings, who says a move by China last year to no longer import U.S. recyclables flooded the market with materials which once sold at $160 per ton. It started to pile up at processing centers and earlier this summer it was selling for $71 per ton. Berens’s company, which collects recyclables from drop boxes and residential customers in Billings and sells it to regional processing centers, couldn’t turn a profit. Berens was forced to lay off employees, raise rates on his customers and take out a loan from the bank to keep Earth First Aid afloat. Billings’ relatively remote location for transport of recyclables exacerbates the problem. Read more at; billingsgazette.com.