Glass
Despite continuing difficult conditions, glass prices have remained relatively flat this month with increases and decreases of only a couple of pounds.
Cheaper virgin cullet from Europe is continuing to undercut the market and there has been consistently high availability of recycled glass, with green bottle proving particularly difficult to shift.
Industry contacts warned that they don’t expect the situation to get better closer to Christmas.
This is also being affected by wider difficulties in the drinks market.
View our more detailed glass price index here.
Metals
The metals market has remained relatively stable through October, with some fluctuations. Demand has been reasonable across most grades, helping to maintain overall price levels.
Many non-ferrous metal grades have seen increases in prices in October, while ferrous metal grades continue to see stable or downward prices.
The aluminium can market continues to perform consistently, with prices increasing amid balanced supply conditions.
Steel cans, however, have seen a slight downward trend, reflecting continued uncertainty in the sector.
This uncertainty has been exacerbated by news that Unimetals has filed a notice of intention to enter administration this month.
View our more detailed metal price index here.
Organics
The organics market has seen upward pressure on gate fees this month, particularly across windrow composting and anaerobic digestion facilities.
A shortage of available outlets and strong demand for processing capacity have contributed to rising prices. In some regions, increased volumes of material and limited free tip space are further driving costs upward.
View our more detailed organics price index here.
Plastics
The plastics market has been quite unpredictable this month due to a rollercoaster month with regards to the plastics PRN. After jumping to around £400 in value, this fell significantly and is now increasing again. This has made plastics pricing quite difficult with some pricing weekly.
The increased PRN value has put upward pressure on the prices paid for some plastics grades and has helped to keep material for other grades moving.
The PET market in particular continues to struggle with tough competition from virgin material and cheap imports.
View our more detailed paper price index here.
Textiles
The second-hand textiles sector continues to struggle amongst dwindling demand from overseas markets and surplus of low-quality textiles due to ultra-fast fashion.
Charity shop collections and textiles banks continue to see low, but stable pricing.
However, some in the industry have warned that they may soon have to look at charging HWRCs for collections due to the low grade of the textiles they are collecting.
View our more detailed textiles price index here.
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