Recycle, Reuse, Recession?

It appears the bottom has dropped out of the recycling industry:

Just months after riding an incredible high, the recycling market has tanked almost in lockstep with the global economic meltdown. As consumer demand for autos, appliances and new homes dropped, so did the steel and pulp mills' demand for scrap, paper and other recyclables.

Cardboard that sold for about $135 a ton in September is now going for $35 a ton. Plastic bottles have fallen from 25 cents to 2 cents a pound. Aluminum cans dropped nearly half to about 40 cents a pound, and scrap metal tumbled from $525 a gross ton to about $100.

It's getting more difficult to find buyers in some markets

Providing this is the case nationwide, then what happens to our efforts to recycle and repurpose--to keep things out of landfills. If it can't make money will cities and companies even pick up recycling any more.

< karl malden voice> What WILL you do?< / karl malden voice>