Recycling prices and market commentary: 31 March 2023

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The recycling markets are really hard to read at the moment, making trading really difficult.

In plastics, the PRN/PERN continues to be volatile and that makes trading decisions harder when you don’t know if it will fall or rise before you’ve signed off the order.

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Some paper grades increased this week, but others fell. It is definitely a case of different demand requirements are having an impact on different grades.

For metals, some non-ferrous grades increased, but ferrous grades dropped.

The pound was up again to $1.24 compared to the dollar, jumping from $1.22 a week ago. Against the euro it was unchanged at €1.13.

Recycled plastics

The story over the last few weeks has been the volatile PRN/PERN for packaging grades and this week was no different.

By losing £30 per tonne, it brought most packaging grades down by the same amount.

In terms of physical material, there is little change in the underlying value, but some buyers and sellers are trying to play the market but more seem to be reluctant to step in too heavily hoping for more stable conditions in the coming weeks.

Demand seems to be steady, as does supply at the moment.

Recycled paper

Big deep sea buyers tended to dominate this week, with a little more interest coming from Europe – although not lots of interest.

Those who could get hold of OCC were able to get a couple of quid extra or more compared to last week, although there were still complaints that there isn’t a lot of material around.

Mixed got a lot of interest as people see a lot of value in it still, and this pushed up the price of it.

This wasn’t the case for both multi and SOW though, with both coming down in value as demand wanes.

Recycled metals

Copper gained £275 per tonne and brass £250 per tonne after strong performance on the LME. This wasn’t the case with ferrous grades though, which eased by £5 per tonne.

Recycling prices

For recycled paper prices, click here

For recycled plastic prices, click here

For recycled metal prices, click here

For recycled glass prices, click here

For PRN/PERN prices, click here