For the past nine years, Chicago Disposal has utilized third party processing plants for all of our customers’ recycling materials. Historically, these plants processed the recycling materials for either a small rebate or, at a minimum, a zero rebate for processing. However, this is no longer the case.
In January 2018, China closed its markets to foreign recycling material. Due to this shift in the global market, the processing plants are now charging us a fee to process the recycling. Therefore, we are also forced to implement a recycling processing fee as a result of this global issue. This fee will fluctuate depending on the market. If the global market charge increases, our recycling processing fee will increase. If the global market charge decreases, our recycling processing fee will decrease as well.
To learn more about the global shift in single stream recycling, please refer to the links below.
https://psmag.com/economics/china-is-saying-no-to-our-scrap
China’s waste import ban upends global recycling industry – Phys.org
China’s Blow to Recycling Boosts U.S.’s $185 Billion Plastic Bet …