Poly-Folly
Plastic Traders (or Traitors?)
As some of you may know on May 27, 2005 PP and LDPE will hit
the open market as a commodity featured on the London Metal Exchange (LME).
This is an exciting time for the plastics industry; besides international
acknowledgment we will actually have access to a set market value for the
material we work. It also means a new generation of Traders will be injected
into the local marketplace.
These Traders will most likely be one of two things: A) A
former commodity trader. or B) A plastics processor trying to grab a bigger
piece of the poly-pie.
I am looking at the pie from the recycling/processing (post
consumer/industrial) aspect. Here ‘s what I predict:
Needless to say we (in the recycling industry) are all bound for a year of
fumbling. Rejected loads will fly around like beach balls at a KISS concert,
and miscellaneous parcels of material will multiply in every dark corner of our
grand Continent. After approximately one year (yes for all you veterans, I've only been
around for about 400 days) I know one thing for certain: Plastic is different from
coffee.
Let’s say you have 100,000 lbs. of "Genetically
Engineered Caffeine Bean Coffee" ready to be traded on the open market.
While the coffee was in production in some dreary third world country a poor
peon dropped a pocket full of "Star-Bux Value Brew Coffee Beans” into
the parcel. The coffee gets sold to Finland (Note: One of the biggest coffee
consumers in the world) and chances are, no one in a million years will ever be
able to tell. But with plastic, let's say I have a parcel of ABS, and the same
poor peon drops a handful of PVC into a box of regrind. No doubt I will get a
friendly phone call from a secondary plastics processor to the tune of
"I'm not paying you, and you owe me X amount of money for ruining an
entire melt." Suddenly writing for Plastics.com is my only past time.
Similar issues like this will soon run amuck in the recycling sector.
How can I make such predictions? Well to start I've had
plastic rejected from China, India, Korea, Taiwan, America, and the local
Canadians. Simply due to the fact I was looking at plastic from a metal traders
point of view, which is a viral problem right now (giving everyone fair
warning). If you’re a processor, and considering to purchase recycled material,
do what you can to ensure you product.
Also, I beg of my audience, don't judge all recyclers by my blunders. I am now
a year older, and wiser - meaning I've learned to add the term "Sorting
Goods" to the end of my product descriptions.
And Remember: Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody
else.
Comments