Recycling prices and market commentary: 12 May 2023

May 12, 2023

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With the compliance obligation expected to be published today, this led to a quiet market as packaging buyers and sellers waited to see the impact on the PRN/PERN market.

This data could have the effect of changing PRN/PERN prices, and with values being so high recently, the obligation data could see falls or rises in the value.

Coming from the National Packaging Waste Database, the obligation data will give a firm indication of how close or not we are in meeting compliance targets for this year.

For plastics, PET demand in particular is weak. While for paper and cardboard grades, there wasn’t a huge amount of change.

The pound was unchanged against the dollar at $1.25, and there was no change compared to the euro at €1.14.

Recycled plastics

While the PRN/PERN came off by £5 per tonne this week, all eyes were on the expected publication of the obligation data from the National Packaging Waste Database.

This meant that there wasn’t a huge amount of trade.

One material to look at in particular is PET, where there is a glut of material in Europe at the moment and so demand is poor and supply is high. With no real interest in this market at present, many are finding it hard to find outlets. As a result, prices are starting to come down.

There are also reports that European demand for LDPE grades, especially jazz is falling.

Recycled paper

The price of OCC came down a little bit this week as demand fell a touch. In truth, there wasn’t a lot being traded, as most had done their business for the month a couple of weeks ago.

Like with other packaging grades, everyone was waiting for the PRN/PERN obligation data to see what effect it would have on this market.

Other grades saw no change in value, as again, there wasn’t a huge amount of volume being bought and sold.

Recycled metals

Copper dropped by £75, while brass and aluminium came down by £50 this week. Ferrous grades continued their slide seeing another £10 per tonne come off.