Councils left with mountains of cans as recycling price collapses

Factiva: "Councils have stockpiled mountains of tin cans after a collapse in the price of steel in the global economic downturn.

One in four councils has already asked for more storage capacity to cope with the problem, which has been caused by a sharp fall in the demand for recycled goods. Councils in Gloucestershire are trying to shift more than 40 tonnes of stored cans.

Printwaste, which handles waste for recycling, said that it had already reduced the quantity of cans stored at Cheltenham and Tewkesbury from 80 tonnes to 40 tonnes. But the company is now faced with moving a backlog of between 60 and 80 tonnes of cans from Gloucester City Council."