• cardboard (without inside packing materials);
• paper products, including newspapers, junk mail and office and school paper;
• paperboard, such as cereal and cracker boxes;
• plastic bottles and jugs; and
• steel, tin and aluminum cans.

• plastic, latex and cloth disposable gloves;
• disposable masks;
• liquid soap and hand sanitizer bottles that contain residue;
• disinfectant wipes;
• facial tissues, napkins and paper towels;
• disposable plates, cups and cutlery;
• takeout containers; 
• leftover food and liquids;
• plastic bags and plastic film wrap; and
• hoses, cords, polystyrene foam and other packaging.

Economic forecasters and analysts are predicting that affects of the COVID-19 coronavirus will add momentum to an economic slowdown in Mexico that appears to have been underway since the second half of 2019.

Global banking firm Credit Suisse has “sharply lowered” its forecast for Mexico’s gross domestic product (GDP) prospects, according to a late March Reuters report.

Citing the spread of the coronavirus and likely reactions to it, the bank says it expects 4 percent economic contraction in Mexico’s GDP in 2020. That was down from a previous prediction of 0.7 percent GDP growth, according to Reuters.

The same report indicates Mexico’s GPD shrank by 0.1 percent in 2019, stemming in part from uncertainty about how newly elected president Manuel Lopez Obrador would manage the economy.

The same Credit Suisse analysis says the GDP figure could improve if Obrador focuses less on hitting an annual government budget surplus target in 2020 and if the nation lowers its central bank’s interest rate.

Economics professor Valeria Moy of policy thinktank México says forecasters nearly across the board have an “uninspiring short-term outlook for Mexico.”

Writing on the Americas Quarterly website, Moy conditions in his nation are especially disappointing when compared to a “potential GDP” figure designed to measure “the level of output an economy can produce” when a country efficiently uses its labor force and capital.

Writes Moy, “The difference between the potential output and observed GDP is referred to as the output gap.” She cites the Obrador administration as one culprit, writing that it “has made several decisions that tamper with the construction of a more dynamic economy.”

One victim of Mexico’s slowdown in early has been its steel industry. In the first two months of 2020, the nation’s mills produced 2.77 million metric tons of finished or semifinished steel.

That figure is down by 16 percent from the nearly 3.3 million metric tons produced in the first two months of 2019.

Among sizable nations with multiple steelmaking facilities, it was one of the largest percentage year-on-year drops, along with Spain (-36 percent); South Africa (-27 percent) and Poland (-23 percent).

Houston-based Waste Management CEO Jim Fish has indefinitely guaranteed 40-hour workweek pay for his 45,000 employees in light of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Yahoo Finance. 

“When I took the job back in 2016, one thing I said is we aren’t going to do any layoffs. And now it’s more important than ever. We have certainly protected the financial security of our 45,000 [employees],” Fish said on Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade.

Fish continued, “What we are doing is taking cost out of other parts of the organization. We have told our hourly employees they may have gotten more than 40 hours a week previously under the noncoronavirus environment and they are not necessarily guaranteed they will get those extra hours. But we are putting this 40-hour backstop behind them. What I didn’t want is to have our employees worrying [about] how they were going to pay rent or put food on the table. This kind of takes a huge weight off of their shoulders so they can do their jobs as well as they can.”

As for Fish’s second initiative tied to the coronavirus, he is lending a hand to the small businesses that are being hammered by the crisis. 

“For our small customers, we are going to commit to a month of free service to help them get their feet back on the ground," Fish said. "That’s a big financial commitment from our standpoint, but I think it bulls loyalty from those customers and they appreciate the fact we aren’t just there to charge them as soon as they get their feet back on the ground.”

S&P Global Platts, an independent provider of information and benchmark prices for the commodities and energy markets, has launched three new daily spot price assessments for U.S. postconsumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle bales, effective April 1. 

According to S&P Global Platts, the postconsumer plastic bottle price assessments will “bring crucial market insight and price transparency" based on the company's experience building independent and robust assessment methodologies. The provider says it hopes this new transparency will help increase market participants’ understanding of how recycled plastics are evolving into tradable commodities.

“Our new recycled plastic assessments offer market participants crucial price transparency that helps develop open and fair markets at a time when the supply of quality recycled plastics raw material is their top challenge,” says Ben Brooks, head of plastics recycling price reporting at S&P Global Platts. “U.S. legislators are considering proposals that mandate radical change to minimum recycled plastic content, which will only increase the need for independent pricing based on a robust methodology.” 

S&P Global Platts states that this service may especially help if legislation such as the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act of 2020 passes. That legislation was unveiled in February and aims to create a nationwide container-deposit system where producers would be required to fund waste and recycling systems as part of an extended producer responsibility (EPR) program. This legislation would shift the burden of waste collection and recycling from taxpayers and states to producer companies. It would also propose incremental increases in the minimum recycled content used in foodservice products to 25 percent by 2025, with a three-year moratorium on new polymer-resin plant construction feedstocks.

“Plastics recycling is a critical component of the circular economy,” adds Rob Stier, petrochemical analyst at S&P Global Platts. “In a market where demand will continue to outweigh supply, securing a reliable source of recycled plastics at a fair price will be challenging and S&P Global Platts Analytics forecasts that competition for quality, recycled plastics will be fierce over the next decade. The trend seen in Europe with recycled PET flakes pricing higher than virgin PET may become the new normal, with buyers having to pay a premium for food-grade recycled PET. Therefore, having confidence in the recycled plastics prices will be increasingly important to help market participants meet the recycled content demanded by the marketplace.”   

According to S&P Global Platts, its daily assessments will reflect price information for the Greater Los Angeles and Chicago areas on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, as gathered and published through Platts’ price assessment process, closing at 4 p.m. CST.

FOB Los Angeles prices will reflect premium-grade material, primarily sourced from redemption centers, with a minimum PET content of 70 percent, and curbside material with a minimum PET content of 60 percent. Bales sourced from the Los Angeles area should consist of at least 80 percent clear bottles.

The Chicago assessment will reflect mixed-colored bales, excluding black and solid colors, sold on an FOB basis with a minimum PET content of 60 percent and gathered from a curbside collection process. Bales could consist of clear, transparent green, or transparent light blue bottles.

The assessment will reflect material that is picked up on the same day up to seven days forward from the date of the transaction. Prices will be published in U.S. cents per pound. Transaction volumes for both locations will reflect a typical range of 35,000 to 40,000 pounds (approximately one 53-foot trailer load). S&P Global Platts offers more information on its new price assessments here.