Throughout the two years since China stopped accepting paper and most plastics, the Scott Area Recycling Center has continued to hold its own, said Kathy Morris, executive director of the Waste Commission of Scott County, which operates the recycling program.
The center recycles nine commodities from items it collects from many locations. These include Davenport; Bettendorf; Rock Island; Moline; East Moline; Scott, Rock Island, Clinton and portions of Linn counties; Iowa City; Pella; and West Liberty. The center accepts materials from such a large area because there is efficiency in volume.
The price received for all nine commodities, when taken together, was $46.16 per ton in January, the latest month for which the center had figures, compared with $64.05 per ton in January 2019, Morris said. Although that is down, it is up from the all-time low of $32.09 per ton in September 2019. The all-time high was $116.88 per ton in March 2017.