'The obvious effect … is to force the price of the raw materials purchased from charities to even higher levels.' As a result, sorters' remaining profit margins had been “completely eroded' over recent months.
Companies with heavy commitments to plant and production in the UK were seeing their raw material costs 'inflated to unworkable levels by virtual one-man operations with few overheads, turning over material without any sorting at all'.
At least the 'more ethical” charities were declining knowingly to sell goods to direct shippers of original textiles because of the lack of control over disposal of the unsaleable recyclables within the importing countries, he added.
As regards the German market, Gunther Krippendorf of FWS/Alta West reported relatively stable conditions but insisted collectors and sorters were in no position to sustain additional costs. Demand had improved over recent months and yet sorters had been largely unable to win price increases owing to the pressure on purchasers' margins.
Having acknowledged cost pressures and low margins in other leading world markets, Klaus Löwer of Germany-based Hans Löwer Recycling GmbH appealed for research into potential new outlets for used textiles - for example, as combustibles in cement plants. 'Textiles are simply too valuable to end up in landfills,' he insisted.
Bureau of International Recycling
marketing@alchempro.com
