Headaches and (high) hopes

Generally, recyclers are optimistic, hands-on people. They are go-getters. There are always new business opportunities to explore, even when markets are slow, flat or simply disastrous.

There may be strong headwinds but sitting back and giving up is never an option in this industry, if you ask me.

And yet for some, in recent months, giving up has become more and more of a reality. We’re seeing a growing trend of businesses going bust, especially in secondary plastics. In Europe, plastics recyclers have been closing their doors, one after another, plagued by extremely low demand for recycled materials, rising costs, shrinking margins and limited policy support.

Recycling has become a survival of the fittest, it seems.

We don’t hear similar stories from the scrap metal scene but, here too, traders and managers are concerned. I talked to quite a few metal recyclers and traders at the recent BIR show in Singapore, and not a single one of them could say their business was going great.

Many industries worldwide are making fewer products which affects the availability of production scrap. Recyclers across Europe have seen the infeed of copper and aluminium scrap shrinking by 30-50% and they ask themselves when a change for the better will come.

Some of the concern described above is reflected in our fourth Top 100 edition of recycling’s most inspiring people and practices from around the world. On page 24-48 you will read what keeps these frontrunners in your industry going during such unpredictable times.

It’s late November as I write and we all wonder what the New Year will bring. I hope and think it’ll be OK. Like most recyclers, I’m not a pessimist. I cling to the thought that the best is yet to come. As you probably do.