ANOTHER KEBAB COMRADE?

County and Borough Councils around the UK (you may as well include the rest of the world) are gearing up to take advantage of a rumour of the recycled paper and board market reawakening.

Councils across the land have stockpiled baled plastics, aluminium can, paper and cardboard for sale to the east; essentially China (via PRN Brokers) who simply hasn’t been buying of late – please see previous post.

Word that the market is picking up has meant a multitude of MRFs (Material Recycling Facilities), Councils, specialist paper and board reprocessors et al chomping at the bit to sell their waste for anything just so it doesn’t go to landfill which defies the point of the whole process, costs more money, destroys public confidence and stuffs up the councils recycling statistics for the entire year.

The anticipated result of this huge stockpile of recycled rubbish being brought to market will be a rush to sell which will keep the price for paper below the rate at which most Councils and MRFs have budgeted at operating for 2009.

As the government is committed to the EU Requirements for recycling it has no choice but to continue insisting that the recycling rates are met and the shortfall in the value of each commodity (that the councils have been relying on to fund the collection) will have to be met by the Tax Payer.

Until such time that Britain gets as efficient at reprocessing recycled waste as it is at collecting it, just like our dependence upon foreign oil and foreign gas we will forever be budgeting based upon someone else’s mood swing – “now would you like another kebab comrade?”