From NPR: Low Oil Prices Interfere With What Recyclers Are Paid For Plastic

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The price of oil has been on a downward dive for a couple years now, and one business hit especially hard by low oil prices is the recycling business. Here’s Stacey Vanek Smith from our Planet Money team.

STACEY VANEK SMITH, BYLINE: Last spring, oil prices had just dropped in half from $120 a barrel to about $60 a barrel, and all of these recycling plants were going out of business. To figure out why, I visited Tom Outerbridge at Sims Recycling in Brooklyn, right near where live.

My garbage comes here – or my recycling. Sorry.

TOM OUTERBRIDGE: Yeah, your (inaudible).

SMITH: Is that bad to call it garbage?

OUTERBRIDGE: Yeah, well, we don’t call it garbage because we’re not really in the garbage business. People make that mistake all the time.

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