The overseas financial crisis that has hammered worldwide markets for recycled goods has crippled area recycling revenues as well -- and experts say if the trend continues it might force local governments to raise taxes and collection fees to cover curbside recycling costs.

Prices for steel have plunged, aluminum is at a five-year low and paper, while on the rebound, was down significantly for much of the past year. That means Baltimore County recycling revenue will decline by $858,000 for the fiscal year that ends June 30.

Other area jurisdictions -- with smaller budgets and less recyclable material to sell -- also have been hit, though not as severely.

"The markets for metals are really depressed right now, and if the governments are going to provide this service, they're going to have to make up for the loss of revenues somehow," said Jenny Heumann, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based Environmental Industry Association, a group that represents recycling and trash haulers.

Local officials say they have no immediate plans to make taxpayers pay more to recycle.

Recycling experts blame the financial crisis that crippled economies in Asia and South America this year. The crisis has slowed manufacturing worldwide, stifled the demand for metal products and meant an oversupply of scrap metal and newspapers, they say.

"The supply is up and the demand is low," said Robert Garino, director of commodities research for the Washington-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.

As a result, in Baltimore County, officials had anticipated rais- ing $1.5 million from paper in the current fiscal year. They now say they will collect about $1 million. Metal cans were expected to bring in $690,000. That estimate is down to $423,000.

Officials in the county, which recycles 40,000 tons of paper and 9,200 tons of bottles and cans each year, plan to ask the County Council on April 5 to approve a transfer of cash to cover the shortfall.

"When the markets are good, we get revenues. But when they're not so good, it's going to cost us," said Charles Reighart, recycling coordinator for the Baltimore County Department of Public Works.

Recycling advocates say the added costs are justified because recycling saves landfill space, reduces landfill storage costs and saves energy by reducing the demand for production of steel and aluminum, both of which require a large amount of energy to produce.

"There's an economic benefit as well as an environmental benefit," Reighart said.

Baltimore County is not the only jurisdiction affected by the depressed market for recyclables.

Anne Arundel County will have to pay about $6,000 next year to collect bottles and cans. Its bottle and can collection last year yielded $76,000.

While the fees paid by Howard County to recycle bottles and cans will rise in April from $10 to $20 per ton, fees that the county collects for paper will rise from $5.93 per ton to $9.26 per ton, said Linda Fields, chief of Howard County's recycling division.

Both rates are for the three-month stretch from April through June, and both could change again in July, she said.

Area officials say they do not expect to raise taxes or collection fees to cover the costs.

Prices for plastic and glass have remained steady, paper prices are beginning to pick up, and fees collected by selling those products should offset any loss of revenue from metals, they say.

"Overall, it's not going to impact the budget because it's a relatively small amount," said John A. Morris, an Anne Arundel County public works spokesman.

Baltimore continues to spend about $1 million a year on recycling, and officials are unaware of any revenue losses resulting from declining metal prices, said Robert Murrow, a city public works spokesman.

Carroll County is spending less on recycling this year than in previous years because the county signed a contract with Partners Quality Recycling Services Inc. of Rosedale in July that allows the county to keep a greater share of its recycling revenues.

Experts say that the markets and prices for recyclables can be as volatile as the stock market and that there is little government officials can do to accurately predict revenues.

"It's a tough economy out there for recycling," said Monty Davison of Partners Quality Recycling Services, which processes paper, glass and metal containers for Baltimore and for Howard, Harford, Carroll and Cecil counties.

Experts say that if prices of a commodity are down overseas, they are likely to be down in the United States.

The price for aluminum listed on the London Metal Exchange, an international price reference for recyclers, dropped from 80 cents a pound in 1995 to about 50 cents a pound this year, Garino said.

"It's hard to see the connection between the price of metal in London and the price for some guy selling cans to make a few bucks on the street, but with recycling it's a world economy, and it's all interrelated," Garino said.

Not all the news is bad.

The prices for newspapers -- considered the bedrock commodity in the recycling business -- is about $35 per ton and is slowly starting to rise, experts say.

"If you're collecting newspapers, you're in a good market because it's been pretty dormant, but the interest in that area is going up right now," said Mark Arzoumanian, editor of Office Board Markets, a Chicago-based newsletter that covers the paper recycling industry.

Pub Date: 3/14/99