So, what do you do when the price of recyclables such as cardboard and paper falls so low that the recycling company can’t afford to pay you anything for the material and maybe they even charge you to take it? If you’re a business that is hurting from the economic slump, then obviously you need to look at all your expenses and find ways to do things smarter.

When faced with the possibility of even paying to recycle, one very important consideration should be to look at the long-term impact of your decision. Not only is the continuation of recycling important for the environment, it is important for your bottom line. The negative publicity that could accompany such a decision could have a significant effect on people’s decisions to do business with you. You may want to reconsider any plans you might have to dump material in order to save costs and instead keep recycling to maintain your company’s green image.

As you work numbers and try to figure how you are going to cover the new costs or at least get by without the recycling program revenue you previously received, be careful of suggestions like the one in this article to sign long-term recycling contracts any time in the near future. The terms are certainly not going to be in your favor, especially with recyclers not even being able to sell most of their material. If you wait until the prices begin to rebound, you’ll be a lot better off.

In case you haven’t noticed, scrap prices of every material are down dramatically. The economic slowdown has reduced demand of pretty much every single scrap commodity. That, of course, is starting to impact recycling rates on some items. One in particular is paper and cardboard products.

International Paper just recently had to shut down one of its paper machines that makes cardboard due to decreased demand. This has in turn reduced the price on recycled paper products and recycling yards will now find it harder to secure a buyer for those products and lowers the price they pay for the material. All of this results in less recycling of paper.

We seem to become more and more aware of things we used to take for granted the longer the economy continues to struggle. Hopefully we won’t see any permanent reduction in recycling rates.