Low Oil Prices Take Their Toll On Recycling Sector

Oilprice.com ^ | 18-01-2016 | plastic

[bananaman22]

“Plastics,” Mr. McGuire tells Ben Braddock in the 1967 film “The Graduate.” He was impressing on the young man the importance of one of the chief branches of the oil industry: Virtually every item available at the time contained plastic, or was packaged in it. So a career in plastics meant you always had something to sell.

That’s just as true today, despite many changes in societal priorities. Plastics are still ubiquitous, whether they’re made from oil or recycled from scrap. But a major change has come over the past 19 months, and there’s no telling how long it will be with us: The price of oil has fallen so low that it’s now less expensive to make plastic than to recycle it.

[libertarian27]

Never thought low oil prices would effect recycling programs, but yes, of course they would...

So now the cost of city/town recycling programs will go up.

This is a good time for states that have the bottle bill to dump it so their cities and towns can make money on aluminum put into the recycling stream instead of the 5-10cent deposit stream.

[nascarnation]

An interesting comparison.

Ethanol fuel is affected by this also, the ethanol commodity in E10 gas is now more expensive per unit volume than the petroleum derived portion.

[libertarian27]

I just ran a wood pellet/ oil cost comparison.
http://www.woodpellets.com/support/fuel-savings-calculator.aspx
We’d save over $500 this winter by using oil and stop using the pellets (holding them for when the price of oil goes up)

[nascarnation]

Playing the commodity markets in “real life”.

Back when I had propane heat I would always fill up over the summer. But it seemed like the refill price in winter was usually a killer. I considered getting a jumbo tank (1000 gals) that would last a full heating season but never did it.

[subterfuge]

Just end”recycling” Problem solved!

[Scrambler Bob]

If I want to start a conversation at a gas station, I ask a fellow customer if he is “buying petroleum futures”.

[scooby321]

Not only is Fracking getting killed but Obama’s Green Energy is toast

[Organic Panic]

I have a machine shop and produce lots of aluminum and stainless steel chips. It costs me more to drive to the recycler in gasoline than the scrap brings in. They don’t even pick it up for free any more. In to the trash it goes without the slightest feeling of guilt.

[OldMagazine]

Your propane supplier would likely slap a tank rental fee on you if you filled up only once per year. It would cost about $1800 to buy a 1000 gal tank.