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GREENSBORO — Jerry White and the sorters at the city’s Patton Avenue recycling plant are experiencing their own kind of holiday rush.

Towering, 1,400-pound blocks of crushed soda cans and mixed paper fill the warehouse, where workers and machines sort the goods by category.

“This is the busiest time of year,” said White, a regional manager for this and other recycling plants.

Unlike retailers, this seasonal boom in business isn’t helping White meet his bottom line — not since prices for recyclable goods have dipped.

Market prices for recyclables such as paper and metal have dropped dramatically in recent weeks. That means some municipal recycling programs, which were earning good money just a few months ago, are now in a tough financial situation.

Greensboro’s share of profits for its recycling program dropped from $32,000 in October to zero in November. In High Point, the city is stockpiling goods, lest they have to sell them at the rock-bottom prices or pay someone to haul it off.

But despite the downturn, officials say they will fight to keep residents recycling.

“My commitment from an industry standpoint is we are going to continue to try to make it cheaper than the landfill,” said Sheldon Smith, Greensboro’s solid waste division manager.

The city of Greensboro contracts with the company FCR, which has 26 recycling plants along the East Coast, to sort and sell the recyclables it collects from neighborhoods and businesses.

Greensboro pays $20 a ton to drop recyclables at the Patton Avenue sorting center. After the goods are sold, Greensboro gets part of the profits.

For the estimated 30,000 tons of recyclables Greensboro expects to collect this year, the city estimated it would earn $450,000.
Those plans fell apart this fall.

“November was the first month we saw a loss of revenue in this recession,” said Nancy Jimerson, the city’s waste reduction and inspection supervisor. “In October you started to see a slight decline, but in November it just hit.”

Right now, FCR is getting a good price for aluminum because they have locked in prices with Anheuser-Busch, White said.

But other recyclables aren’t selling as well.

Tin, which went for $200 a ton earlier this year, now sells for $5, White said. Mixed paper went for $160, but now sells for $5 a ton.

“The thing that happened on Wall Street, it is all trickling down to all levels,” Smith said.

It’s the worst market for recycled commodities White has seen since the market tanked in the mid-1990s.

“It’s worse than it’s been ever,” White said.

“We’ve seen prices where we have to pay to get rid of it.”

Smith said he wouldn’t be surprised it Greensboro didn’t see any revenue from recyclables for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends in June. That would put another dent in the city’s budget, which city leaders have already estimated may be more than of $4.5 million short this year.

Since it’s not a good time to sell, recycling programs such as the one in High Point plan to ride out the tough market.

High Point is holding onto about 450 tons of paper.

The city also is stockpiling steel cans, since it will have to pay someone to haul them away.

“We’re eventually going to run out of room, so we will have to get rid of some of the material,” said Richard McMillan, assistant director for public services in High Point.

But McMillan said even if the city sells the commodities for a low price to a vender, “It is still material that won’t go to a landfill.”

That’s one goal area recycling program managers can agree on: They don’t want recyclables to be dumped.

“My whole goal in life is I want to leave the planet better than it was for us,” McMillan said.

“That’s really what it’s all about.”

Contact Amanda Lehmert at 373-7075 or amanda.lehmert@news-record.com