Falling price of metal tests mettle of recycling industry

Tammy Baldwin cut her staff from five to two employees in the past few months. The economy is hitting the recycling industry hard.

"It's dead. Prices are so low. There's no market for it right now," said the owner of Baldwin Metal Recycling in North Augusta.

She attributes the problem to steel contracts that no longer exist between the United States and China. Other contracts, such as aluminum, also have fallen apart because demand from mills is down.

Cardboard prices have dropped from $135 a ton in September to $35 a ton, the Associated Press reported. Plastic bottles have fallen from 25 cents to 2 cents a pound. Aluminum cans have plunged by almost half to about 40 cents a pound, and scrap metal has declined from $525 a gross ton to about $100.

Recycling centers pay customers for their recyclable goods and then try to sell them to companies for a profit, which is much less than before.

"It's really bad. Without contracts, you can't sell the aluminum and steel. I'm hoping that it has hit rock bottom and it can't go any further," Ms. Baldwin said. "We'll know by February whether we're going to be able to make it or not."

Other local recycling businesses report the same major decline in business. Newell Recycling of Augusta's corporate office in East Point, Ga., declined to comment, and several recycling centers in Augusta did not return telephone calls.

Mel Rasmussen, the owner of Campbell Recycling in Augusta, said if business doesn't pick up soon, he'll have to close his doors. He moved here two months ago from California and purchased the Augusta recycling business. He has already cut his staff from eight to two workers.

"I couldn't have picked a worse time. They said in 34 years they would have never predicted this because recycling is supposed to be recession proof," Mr. Rasmussen said.

He said everything went sour when the price of steel declined.

In order to survive, he's using the "turn and burn" principle. He accepts all metals and car batteries and tries to get as much as possible for them.

He believes that it should have taken years for prices to drop this low. Customers are sometimes irate when they bring in items because they think they should get more money, he said.

"They think we're cheating them, but that's not the case," Mr. Rasmussen said.

Baldwin Metal Recycling, which accepts copper, aluminum, batteries and catalytic converters, is no longer making a profit on steel, Ms. Baldwin said.

"It's not worth people's time to recycle right now because it doesn't pay anything," Mr. Rasmussen said.

J.R. Seabrook, the owner of Take It Away in Augusta, relies on other types of jobs, such as trash removal, backyard and garage clean-ups, to keep his business afloat.

"When the recycling industry took a turn for the worse, I started doing other odds and ends jobs to supplement my income," Mr. Seabrook said.

Reach LaTina Emerson at (706) 823-3227 or latina.emerson@augustachronicle.com.