Waste and Recycling: 2019 in Review

January 7, 2020

January 7, 2020


2019 has been a fascinating year for recycling and waste. Markets continue to stink, plastics are condemned as evil and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) re-embraces recycling. Listed below, in no particular order, are some of the more interesting stories in 2019.


MRFs Go Crazy with Advanced Technology


Recently, I spoke at a recycling conference in Toronto. One of the panels consisted of four companies that manufacture materials recovery facility (MRF) processing equipment. Usually these panels feature over-the-top sales claims and thinly disguised sharp elbows aimed at the competition. This one was the opposite. When the panelists were discussing their latest breakthroughs in sorting technology, especially in robotics and artificial intelligence, they were so polite to each other I thought I was attending a love-in. The reality is that their order books are full, and they all know their technologies are compatible. Their breakthroughs will increase the quality of recyclables for markets while making MRFs safer for workers. Who could possibly complain about that?


EPA Embraces Recycling


In 2017, the EPA budget proposed by the Trump administration zeroed out federal expenditures on solid waste and recycling. Its authors argued that both are state functions not deserving of federal dollars. Congress, instead, chose to maintain funding for those EPA programs at their existing levels. Flash forward two years to America Recycles Day. The EPA-sponsored Innovation Fair featured an array of new technologies and packages. EPA’s Administrator Andrew Wheeler proclaimed the agency’s decision to establish national recycling goals. I guess the federal government has a role in recycling after all.


A Mill Grows in Wapakoneta, Ohio


On October 1, Pratt Industries opened its new recycled containerboard mill in John Glenn’s hometown. This new mill will use 162,000 tons of mixed paper and 68,000 tons of old corrugated boxes as its raw material. The plan is to double the amount used in 10 years. While this mill is not enough to bring life back to depressed recycled paper markets, it is an important first step. Within two years, at least four more new mills will open. I don’t expect recycled paper prices to get close to the dizzy heights of a decade ago. But I do expect that by the end of 2021, the depressed prices we continue to experience will be a thing of the past.


Drone Delivery of Packages Takes a Flight Forward


In September, drones began delivering packages in Christiansburg, Va. Wing, the company whose drones will deliver packages of 3 pounds or less, was the first to be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration as an “air carrier.” The certification allows Wing’s drones to carry packages beyond their operator’s sight. If the drones prove cost effective and do not spark opposition based on noise, privacy or other concerns, drone delivery may become common in rural and exurban areas where they will be more cost effective than truck delivery. The drones also will start carrying heavier loads. Clearly, the packaging used for drone transportation will have to be sturdy enough to withstand any wind buffeting and the impact of being lowered to the ground. Which raises the question, what materials will they be made of?


San Francisco Quietly Abandons its Zero Waste Goal


For years, San Francisco has been claiming it diverts 80 percent of its waste from disposal. The city continued to make these claims even as the amount of waste it sent to landfills steadily increased every year since 2012. It now landfills 427,000 tons of trash. With the 2020 zero waste deadline looming, San Francisco quietly abandoned its 16-year-old goal. Now it wants to cut the amount of garbage going to disposal in half by 2030 and to cut per capita waste generation by 15 percent at the same time. As it turns out, San Francisco recycles barely more than half of its trash. This is quite an achievement for a large, densely populated, multi-lingual city with a high percentage of its population living in multifamily housing. But it’s not 80 percent. San Francisco proved that aspirational goals and aspirational accounting can mask reality for only so long.


Plastics as the Root of All Evil


The country, or at least some environmental groups, appears to have gone on an anti-plastic rampage. Driven by horrific pictures of a turtle with a straw in its nostril and water surfaces covered by plastic packaging, a rising tide of fervor is threatening to lead to sweeping restrictions on single-use products. While some of them are made from paper, glass or metals, it’s the plastic ones that are the focus of protest. As I noted in a summer blog, I have a soft spot in my heart for some single-use plastic products. Instead of railing against all plastic products, we need to accept the fact that many bring substantial environmental benefits, including lower greenhouse gas emissions, from cradle to grave, than their heavier, more recyclable competitors. This creates a dilemma. Which is more important? Lowering greenhouse gas emissions or increasing recycling? Until we figure out how to have our cake and compost it, too, we will have to decide. My choice is to use our brains, not our emotions. Lowering greenhouse gas emissions should be our priority. 



Chaz Miller is a longtime veteran of the waste and recycling industry. He can be reached at chazmiller9@gmail.com.

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Planet Aid

By Sophie Leone • January 20, 2026
Planet Aid is a nonprofit established in 1997 to divert clothes and shoes from the U.S. waste stream and fundraise for community development programs around the world. With thousands of donation bins and centers across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, Planet Aid’s mission is to inspire positive change by making it easy for donors, partners and communities to take small steps that add up to a big impact. Over three decades, Planet Aid has collected more than two billion pounds of clothes and shoes for reuse. These donations have helped Planet Aid raise more than $100 million to fund community-led projects in the U.S., Africa, Asia, and Latin America. With headquarters just outside Baltimore, MD, Planet Aid serves thousands of communities in 14 states, including New York, New Jersey, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut and more. For those without a yellow collection bin or white donation center nearby, they've developed a donation through mail option. By partnering with Give Back Box, you can pack up and mail your donation items directly to their thrift store. This inclusive approach allows them to reach more communities, diverting even more waste that may have gone to a landfill or incinerator. “Planet Aid is excited to join NERC, an organization that shares our goals of minimizing waste, conserving natural resources, and advancing a sustainable economy,” said Uli Stosch, Planet Aid’s Chief Officer of Strategic Development. “We looking forward to collaborating with NERC’s members to help U.S. communities in the Northeast minimize textile waste while maximizing reuse to limit the negative impacts of fast fashion.” NERC is excited to welcome Planet Aid into our growing group of nonprofit members. We look forward to helping share the excellent work they are doing in the NE and around the world. For more information on Planet Aid visit.

Collaborative Solid Waste Strategies

By Sophie Leone • January 20, 2026
Collaborative Solid Waste Strategies (CSWS) is a New Hampshire based nonprofit committed to improving the waste management landscape in NH and other states. Their work is centered around education, advocacy, and innovation. Educating the public is an essential part of effective waste management, and CSWS has an extensive list of resources on municipal solid waste management, including how to manage materials such as glass, metal, and food waste as well as strategies on how to manage landfills, incineration and more. CSWS is a small but mighty team led by Executive Director Carol Foss. Carol sees Collaborative Solid Waste Strategies as an opportunity to help shape the next stage of evolution for solid waste management in New Hampshire. Her dedicated approach allows CSWS to lead as a strong example in the waste management advocacy field. “CSWS strives to be a catalyst for pragmatic and comprehensive approaches to sustainable solid waste management in New Hampshire.” NERC is thrilled to welcome CSWS as members. As a fellow nonprofit, we understand how important their voice and presence are within our industry, and we look forward to collaborating with them and working to achieve our shared goals. For more information on Collaborative Solid Waste Strategies visit.

2025 Recycling Markets Took a Beating in a Weak Retail Year

By Chaz Miller • January 5, 2026
2025 was not a good year for recycling markets. Prices went down for everything in your bin. The only real difference is how badly each material got hit and why. Let’s start with paper, the most important recyclable in terms of weight and volume. Old Corrugated Container (OCC, boxes) prices started rising in the spring of 2023, peaking for several months in the summer of 2024. A long slide then began and lasted for almost all of 2025. Prices for Residential Mixed Paper (RMP) did the same. Nationally, OCC is now at $46.88 per ton and RMP is $20.31 a ton. OCC went down by a third while RMP went down by half. The “good” news is that these prices have been lower in the last five years. RMP, after all, had a negative value early in 2020 and then for a few months in late 2022. (All prices in this article are national prices from RecyclingMarkets.net as of December 31). The 2023 rise and then fall of recycled paper prices was the result of increased capacity to use OCC and RMP as raw materials along with declining overall demand for boxes. New recycled content paper capacity started coming online in 2017, peaking in 2023 when five new mills opened. Those new mills, eager to build up supply lines, caused prices to go up. Existing capacity had no choice but to also pay more. At the same time, demand for new boxes was going down. In fact, box demand has been going down for four years. Something had to give. In 2025, nine existing paper mills announced they would be closing. Old, more expensive, and less efficient to operate, they couldn’t compete with the new mills. All four plastic resins lost value but the impact varied by resin. Natural HDPE, (mostly milk jugs) lost a third of its value. Polypropylene (mostly dairy products) went down by 40 percent. Color HDPE (consumer products such as detergent and shampoo) went down by 48 percent and PET beverage bottles went down by two thirds. Natural HDPE is 46.81 cents a pound. Even at the lower price, this resin remains in a good price range. PET and polypropylene are both 5.38 cents a pound. Recycled PET rose steadily from the summer of 2023 to the summer of 2024. Then it declined equally steadily until it reached a record low of 4.19 cents in early October of this year. Cheap recycled resin imports, too much domestic virgin PET resin and lower summer beverage demand gave prices nowhere to go but down. Recycled PET resin imports are now subject to tariffs, which may be responsible for its recent increase. Nonetheless, its price remains in the doldrums. Polypropylene generally has a low price except when new capacity is coming online and building up capacity. For 46 of the 72 months since January 2020, its price has been less than a dime a pound. For 17 months, it’s been at its current not very good price or less. Color HDPE is 2.81 cents a pound. This resin depends on construction markets because the color can’t be taken out of the resin. New housing starts have been in decline for four years. It also set a record low price in 2025. Aluminum and steel cans are recycling market’s happy place. Their prices went down by 9.3 and 8.7 percent. Aluminum cans have a national average price of 78.75 cents while steel cans go for $158.75 a ton. Over the last few years, the aluminum industry smartly expanded into non-alcoholic beverages such as water and fruit juices. Those new uses keep demand up. After sliding last year, steel can prices stabilized. As for glass, it’s price rarely changes. Clear glass bottles go for $38.56 a ton, brown for $27.19 and green for $10.31. Those prices all rose slightly in the spring of 2023. Mixed glass from single stream curbside collection has a “negative tipping fee” of $25.31 a ton. In other words, the MRF pays the end market to buy it. That price became slightly more negative this year. The glass industry has been in decline for some time, a victim of lighter weight aluminum cans and plastic bottles. In addition, Americans are drinking less alcohol. That’s the biggest user of glass bottles. Our beleaguered economy is hurting recycling markets. Recyclables are just raw materials looking for a buyer. Those buyers are purchasing managers making a bet on how much raw materials they will need for their companies’ products. This can be, say, aluminum cans, boxes to ship those empty cans to beverage companies or boxes to deliver filled cans to retail outlets. When buyers are optimistic, they buy more. In 2025, they were gloomy. Prices of all of these recyclables have been hurt by declining unit sales of consumer products and the resulting decline in box demand. We are in a “ K-shaped” economic recovery from the pandemic. This means the recovery’s impact varied by economic status. Wealthy households now account for half of consumer spending on goods and services. They spend more on “services” such as trips and entertainment than on goods. Lower income households, however, are squeezed between paying for necessities such as housing, health care, insurance and food before everything else. They are pinching their nickels and looking for bargains. Simply stated, due to the K-shaped recovery, sales are down and we need fewer packages and shipping boxes. So what will happen in 2026? The loss of so much older paper capacity is bringing demand and supply back into a better balance. Look for prices to rebound a bit. Plastic prices will remain soft barring a reversal of the K-shaped recovery. PET prices, have the most potential if beverage demand returns. Color HDPE, will remain in the doldrums until new housing construction increases. Natural HDPE will stay where it is or go up a bit. Polypropylene will probably stay where it is. As for glass, change isn’t likely. I realize that’s not optimistic. Given the projected rise in health, insurance and energy costs this year, Americans will still be pinching pennies. Box production will decline as unit sales fall. Our K-shaped economy needs to become a rising economic tide lifting all boats. Recyclables, afterall, are commodities subject to the economy’s ups and downs. When our economy truly rebounds, recycling markets will thrive again. Read on Waste360.