Monday, March 16, 2009
According to the NYT, via marginal revolution, prices for recycled stuff have crashed.
"Tin is now selling for $5 a pound, down from $300. Paper has sagged by as much as 80 percent." I dunno; was tin really at $300 a pound, ever? Off to google.
The general point is a solid one: considered only as raw materials, recycled stuff isn't worth what it was. However, lots of goods (/bads) in the waste stream can be reused as-is. Spent part of today supervising my worker rebuilding a part of the garage using recycled boards. Then went to home depot and spent way too much money on new building materials - my $7,000 house is going to wind up costing $10,000, but well worth it.
Edit: a year ago, tin was at $12, $5 now. Historically $3/lb over last 20 years.
OK, I wasn't the only one who spotted the error. Wonder if the Times has run a correction.
"Tin is now selling for $5 a pound, down from $300. Paper has sagged by as much as 80 percent." I dunno; was tin really at $300 a pound, ever? Off to google.
The general point is a solid one: considered only as raw materials, recycled stuff isn't worth what it was. However, lots of goods (/bads) in the waste stream can be reused as-is. Spent part of today supervising my worker rebuilding a part of the garage using recycled boards. Then went to home depot and spent way too much money on new building materials - my $7,000 house is going to wind up costing $10,000, but well worth it.
Edit: a year ago, tin was at $12, $5 now. Historically $3/lb over last 20 years.
OK, I wasn't the only one who spotted the error. Wonder if the Times has run a correction.
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