Though prices are making a slow comeback, recycling mills still offer little for recyclable plastics. People have had to stockpile it because they cannot sell it. Franklin said that if more producers of plastic bottles started using the recycled material, the market would increase. The University has felt the market's effects. As more plastic appears in the recycling bins, the University must increasingly pay others to cart the material to the mill while the amount of collected aluminum has decreased.
Money is lost on recycling the plastic as well.
It's a money loser. Kevin Morris, a spokesman for Coca-Cola bottling company, said the Coke deal still benefits the University despite the recycling program's losses. The new devices would flatten the plastic bottles by one half to one-third their volume and then bail the plastic along with other materials, reducing hauling costs. In addition to the common quad system recyclables, other materials at the University are recycled at the plant. Workers strip the bindings off textbooks and determine the different grades of paper within each.