JPEG Chart: Monthly Prices for Old NewspaperMoney doesn't grow on trees---it's being left on the curb, leading to a wave of newspaper thefts across North America this year. Scavengers are roaming neighborhoods from Edmonton to Dallas, sometimes in broad daylight, pickpocketing unread newspapers from newsracks and yesterday's editions from curbside recycling bins.
Why? Because the price of old newspaper is soaring.
When the free East Bay Express in Berkeley, Calif., noticed a jump in its number of empty newsracks earlier this year, recycling centers in nearby Oakland were paying $80 per ton for old newspapers. That put the value of the Express at about two cents per copy as wastepaper, reported the California Newspaper Publishers Association. Some unscrupulous people apparently knew easy money when they saw it.
From a national-average price of $14 per ton in early 1994, No. 6-quality ONP hit a recent peak of $160 per ton in June. Prices began to settle down a bit in the summer, but observers cautioned that the wastepaper market could rev back up again with seasonal demand for pulp and paper.
Crime is not the only byproduct of the recent ONP price surge. Where wood-fiber prices allow, some newsprint mills have reduced the recycled content of their newsprint to keep costs under control. As consumers of ONP, the mills have been spooked by what they hope is just an aberration in ONP pricing. Many mills added expensive de-inking equipment in the early 1990s, making recycled fiber a large component of their furnish. And they are not the only purchasers of wastepaper---they must compete with paperboard mills and even tissue and roofing-felt producers.
As for newspaper companies, the jump in wastepaper prices has been only marginally pleasant. A typical newspaper that sells press waste and copy returns gets roughly $130 more per ton than a year ago. After the next newsprint price increase, they will be paying $250 more per ton for the new stuff.
James McLaren is a news editor with Pulp & Paper Week, based in San Francisco. Phone is (415) 905-2503; fax, (415) 905-2240.
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JPEG Chart: Monthly Prices for Old Newspaper©1997 Newspaper Association of America. All rights reserved.