Evening star., 1942-06-05
Higher Scrap Rubber
Price Is Expected 10
Bring Out Much Here
Dealers Believe SIS
Quotation Will Allow
Reasonable Profit

A fat rate of s25 a ton for old
rubber-tires, inner tubes, hose,
boots, hot-water bottles, etc.-prob-
ably will bring considerable of this
scrap out of homes in the District
and the nearby territory.
This Is the consensus of Wash
ington junk dealers following the
announcement of Secretary Of Com
merce Jones yesterday that the Gov
eminent would pay this price for
carload lots.
It Is fair price If the scrap is
to be delivered in Washington, said
D. Kallen. former proprietor of the
Washington Rubber Waste Co.,
which has handled about so per
cent Of tf3 tu1iS rubber in this sec
ton. It 8 debatable, he pointed
out, whether 1t is d price at which
dealers can make profit If the
scrap must be delivered to the pro-
cesSing companies in Akron.
With local deliveries, he said, 1t
will be possible for small junk
dealers to pay 20 to 80 cents each
for wornout tires. This will prob
ably be an inducement for farmers,
in particular, to load the old tires
around the place into their trucks
when they come to town.
Now Used in Many Ways.
A good deal of the scrap rubber,
he pointed out, is to be found in
tires now used for flower pots, for
bumpers on boats, for swings and
other similar uses. 1t is worth
something even for the farmer or
housewife to gather 1t up.
The small dealer, he said, should
have about a Is per cent margin
of profit to pay for handling it,
since good deal Of space is taken
up in accumulating 1t and collec-
tions are In driblets.
A good deal should be brought
out In the form Of old hose, boots
and other household rubber, he
believes. This rubber has been con-
sidered hardly worth reprocessing
in the past. 1t has brought only
81 a ton delivered at Akron and 1t
has cost this much to ship 1t there.
He has had hundreds Of tons of
1t burned to get rid of it, Mr.. Kallen
said.
While the s25-a-ton rate will
bring in considerable scrap rubber,
said Samuel. Block of the Block
Salvage Co., 1910 Thirty-flrst street
NV, 1t is too low to stimulate much
collecting by householders.
Expects Bigger Supply.
His experience has been, Mr..
Block said, that as soon as prices
go. up for any scrap article the
amounts offered to dealers are
greatly increased.
When only IS cents could be Of
fered for a tire. he explained. farm
ers often would refuse to leave 1t
at the junk yard and go away feel
ing he was being cheated.
The Government must under
stand, he said, that the higher the
price the more rubber will come out
of hiding-and almost in exact ratio
to the price increase. This is es-
pecially true of miscellaneous rub
ber articles, of which a householder
may accumulate 10 to Is pounds a
year. There must be some induce
ment for the space taken In base
ments to save the junk.
There probably would be a fair
profit In scrap rubber at s25 ton,
depending on the abundance and
difficulty of collecting it. said j. R.
Sells of the Federal Junk Co., 1125
First street NV.
In the past Mr.. Sells said, few
dealers have bothered with rubber
waste other than old tires. These,
in the normal course of collections,
now are coming in slowly, because
few persons are willing to part even
with bad tires which might be used
In an emergency.
SIS Per Ton on May %.
The last regular sale on May %.
Mr.. Sells said, brought only SIS
ton, and at this price he barely
broke even.
The cost of collecting, he ex-
planned, Is difficult to appraise, with
the growing scarcity of labor and
the wear and tear on the dealers
trucks. Also, he stressed, the
amount of rubber other than tires
which would accumulate is conjec-
tura1, since dealers have had no
market for 1t in the past.
The price of S25 ton should be
a fair one, it was stated at the
Colonial Junk Co., 1881 Virginia
avenue, but this depends on the
place where the rubber is to be
delivered. The market for such lots
as would come to the average dealer
has been uncertain in the past, the
proprietor said.