Customers at scrap yard scale houses have been receiving higher prices for their aluminum used beverage containers (UBCs), and the facilities that melt the cans are paying $1 per pound for baled UBCs.
But Steve Thompson, who runs the Aluminum Association’s Curbside Value Partnership, says the higher prices do not seem to be increasing the flow of UBCs into the recycling chain.
“The supply [of UBCs] is not as responsive to price as it used to be,” Thompson told attendees of a session at the Southeast Recycling Conference & Trade Show, which took place in mid-March in
Domestic melters of UBCs are increasingly convinced that “putting their wallets on the table” will not bring out more supply, said Thompson, so even while LME aluminum prices are rising, UBC prices are not necessarily rising in tandem. “They will not offer more if it’s not going to bring out supply,” said Thompson of the reluctance of UBC buyers to raise their bidding prices.
The aluminum industry has concluded, added Thompson, that UBCs are “no longer a price-driven commodity; it’s education and convenience-driven.”
That conclusion is resulting in increased aluminum industry funding for educational and curbside program enhancement efforts like the Curbside Value Partnership.
Thompson also called for the basic materials industries that benefit from curbside collection—paper, plastic, steel, glass and aluminum—to collaborate to strengthen the municipal recycling sector.
Regarding the future of UBC recycling, Thompson sees little risk on the demand side, but says the industry is willing to take new measures to increase supply. “Aluminum demand remains robust [and] it’s likely to stay that way. We’d like to have every pound [of UBCs], but putting our wallets on the table does not seem to be working the way it used to work.”
The Southeast Recycling Conference & Trade Show, hosted by the Southern Waste Information eXchange Inc., took place March 11-13 in Orange Beach, Ala.