WATERLOO -- For the environment, it always pays to keep reusable materials out of the landfills. For recycling businesses, it pays as long as commodity prices are high enough to make a living.

Major recyclable commodities have lost more than half of their value in less than two months. Some commodities, such as scrap metals, have lost about half their market values in a single day.

On Oct. 31, the American Metals Market Chicago index price of random scrap fell 44 percent, to $90 per ton.

Area recyclers say businesses may not survive if the free-fall continues.

"If this keeps up, some of the smaller centers might not be able to make to make it," said Chet Pabst, manager of Denver Construction's recycling facility.

The facility mostly deals with cardboard, which Pabst said dropped from $75 per ton to $45 per ton in one month.

Pabst said that is the most dramatic drop he has ever seen in more than a decade of working in recycling.

Pabst added that the drop in value has to be passed on to customers to offset some of the loss.

Blane Benham, general manager of Corkery Waste Disposal and Recycling, watched mixed paper prices drop from $55 per ton to $5 to $10 per ton and newspaper go from about $115 a ton to as low as $65 a ton.

"With this drop it's costing more to process it than we get for it," he said.

To stem the loss, Corkery has cut staff hours with periodic shutdowns.

Some companies have set aside recyclable materials in hopes the prices bounce back. Pat Rooff, owner of Rooff Iron and Metal Wrecking, is holding onto scrap metal until prices recover.

"We're speculating that the market is going to come back up," he said.

The bust in scrap-metal prices mean customers who were getting $3 per pound of dirty metal are getting about 80 cents per pound now.

Rooff said he realizes sitting on metal waiting for prices to rise is risky.

"They could still go down more," he said.

Benham said holding the commodities isn't an option for his company.

"We've already got money invested in it," he said. "Storing it is a gamble."

If the prices don't rebound, Benham said, the company will have to renegotiate some of its contracts -- including with the city of Waterloo. Corkery sorts and sells the curbside recycling for the city.

Corkery's contract with Waterloo went into effect July this year. Under that contract, Corkery gets $31.98 per ton of recycling.

Denver Construction handles the city's drop site recycling, at $49.34 per ton. Its contract expires January.

Those contracts may mean the city will pay more to keep more than 1,000 tons of recyclable material out of the landfills every year.

Larry Smith, acting Waterloo Waste Management Services director, said that by contracting out recycling services, the city saves money on equipment and staff. It also cushions the city from the effect of the volatile commodities market.

"Commodities are fluctuating so much," Smith said. "Our job is to get it through the system and get it out of the landfills."

The prices of materials may make that task harder, Benham said.

"Right now it costs us more to recycle than it would to landfill it," he said. "Hopefully that's not an option."

Contact John Molseed at (319) 291-1418 or john.molseed@wcfcourier.com.