Ericco/Maeda Joint Venture and Triple Star Recycling Inc. in Lower Base said they felt the impact of the global economic downturn two months ago.
Due to very low price of recyclables, people are now throwing them into trash cans.
Eric Cruz, the president of Ericco/Maeda Joint Venture, which runs the Basula Produkto said they are buying recyclable materials based on the international market price, which is now very low.
Aluminum cans, for example, which they used to buy for 80 cents per kilo or $800 per ton, is now only sold for $220 per ton.
Cruz said in the recycling industry, it is the market that dictates the price.
China, which is CNMI’s main market for recycled materials, is already overfilled with scrap products, he said.
When the price drops, everybody in the industry is affected, he added.
“We’re also stuck. We cannot even sell [our recyclables],” he said adding that since September, they haven’t shipped their recyclables because the prices are too low.
Triple Star Recycling general manager Tony Reyes said from $4 per kilo last year, they are now buying scrap metals for $2.50 per kilo.
Their sales have declined by 50 percent, he added.
Before, Reyes recalled, they used to ship two container vans of scrap metals to China every week.
In the past two months, they have sent only one container van, he said.
Worse, he said, the shipments are also stuck at China seaports for a month due to the tough competition that further reduces the prices.
“We don’t get anything until those shipments are out of the seaports in China,” Reyes said.
Due to the low prices of recycled materials, he said the people are no longer as active as before in bringing in recyclable materials.
Cruz said based on his inventory, the volume of the recyclable materials sold to them dropped by 75 percent.
The recycling firms supported the Beatify CNMI! campaign last year by giving the public a good deal for their recyclables.
