Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 9, 1995                   TAG: 9502090094
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

TRASH TALK RESUMES AS RECYCLED-PRODUCT MARKET IMPROVES

Only a few facilities were capable of converting waste into raw materials for manufacturing, so the trash that environmentally concerned residents dutifully were separating and bundling was gathering dust in overflowing storage facilities. Some cities and counties that had hoped to sell their garbage for a profit instead had to pay to get it hauled away.

But today, booming demand for recycled products has everyone talking trash again. For some products, such as paper, demand has grown because companies and governments have mandated minimum purchases of recycled material.

Last year, certain kinds of plastic found a huge export market. And some products, such as aluminum cans and glass, are in greater demand because the economy has improved. Collectively, it's a strong signal.

Manufacturers have responded by building dozens of recycling plants, many of which came on line last year. Together, these plants need so much trash that there isn't always enough to go around.

Like all commodities in short supply, the price for trash is skyrocketing. Collecting trash for recycling is expensive. Higher prices for the recycled goods have eased the financial burden somewhat and have validated the extensive recycling campaigns that began in the late 1980s.

``It's a waste-management issue on one side and a resource-management issue on the other side,'' said Kathleen Meade, a spokeswoman for the National Recycling Coalition.

The biggest price increase in the trash business recently has come in the market for old newspapers. Almost 40 states and the District of Columbia require that newspaper publishers use some recycled fiber in their paper, so publishers have pushed their suppliers to do more recycling.

In the past two years, paper manufacturers and publishers have invested about $1.5 billion in facilities that turn old newspapers into usable pulp - called de-inking plants. Many began operating last year, and they all need newspapers.

In January 1993, these plants could get newspapers for nothing from overburdened communities. As of Dec. 7, those same plants had to pay about $25.90 for a ton of newspapers, according to the Environmental Industry Associations.

``The biggest problem right now actually is on the supply side for the paper,'' said Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit environmental research and advocacy group in New York.

Other paper products, such as thick corrugated cardboard used for packaging and shipping, also are in short supply. Communities nationwide are being encouraged by the recycling industry to step up collection programs.

But even selling trash at today's inflated prices will not cover the costs of a collection program, said Meade. Communities have learned that recycling is not going to be profitable - but slightly higher returns make it possible to recycle for its ``inherent environmental value,'' she said.

Rising prices likely will prompt some communities to reinstate collection programs that they abandoned because of the high cost of collection and the weak market for trash, Meade said. Philadelphia, for example, stopped collecting plastic bottles because they take up so much room and increase transportation costs.

Plastic is so expensive to collect that only 10 percent of all discarded plastic gets recycled. But an unlikely event last year caused a surge in demand and increased prices, which may make plastic-collection programs affordable.

The variety of plastic used to make clear bottles, polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, can be turned into strong fibers that are a good substitute for cotton. When a drought last year in China and India severely reduced cotton production, U.S. waste companies ``stepped up recycling of PET into fiber'' to sell overseas, said Chaz Miller, manager of recycling for the National Solid Wastes Management Association.

Overseas companies liked the fiber and have continued to buy it, as have more U.S. clothing manufacturers, causing prices for used PET bottles to rise from 2.2 cents per pound in January 1994 to 3.4 cents a pound in December.

The health of the economy also heavily influences the market for recycled goods, especially for products that are more expensive to make from recycled material than from virgin material.