An industrial neighbourhood north of Bay Street in Victoria is the go-to area for recycling in the core. Despite fluctuating commodity prices, this cluster of businesses takes in many tonnes of materials annually from residential, commercial and government customers.

Everything from paper to lumber, fluorescent tubes, glass, plastics and the old family car ends up here. Depending on prices in the marketplace, businesses will pay for your stuff, or you may be paying them to take it.

The recycling industry was shaken a year ago when global commodity prices crashed. Markets evaporated or shrank. Since then, things have improved, said Doug Stevens, plant manager for Metro Waste Paper Recovery Inc. "All the products are now moving," he said, although he added that commodity prices have not rebounded to where they were "by any stretch."

After the crash, the Capital Regional District changed its recycling contracts with Metro, which handles materials collected through the CRD blue-box program, diverting about 19,000 tonnes of material in a year from the landfill.

The new contract removed the floor price that Metro pays the CRD for paper, keeping Metro's operation alive and its 34 staff working, Stevens said. Metro now takes materials and seeks the best price in the market. This arrangement reflects the true value of the materials, the CRD said.

Without the change, the price Metro could recover for blue-box material would have been below what it paid, Stevens said. "We would have been bleeding all year long."

Newsprint is at about $87 US per short ton, and other fibre grades have recovered about 50 per cent of their value, he said.

Plastic milk-jug prices have recovered somewhat. At the peak last year, they were at $500 per tonne, which later dropped to $100. They have now climbed to between $300 and $350, he said.

"Everything is pretty much business as usual."

Steel Pacific takes in the largest amount of waste on the Island, after the CRD and the Regional District of Nanaimo, the company's website said.

"Each year we recycle enough steel to fill up the B.C. Place Stadium, enough aluminum to build over 450 Twin Otters [without motors], and enough cars to frame almost 4,000 new 2,000-square-foot-homes using metal studs."

In the wake of the recession, prices have stabilized somewhat because of a shortage of scrap, said Barry Waters, co-owner if Steel Pacific.

"When things were booming and construction was at its height, there was strong demand both domestically and internationally," he said.

Currently, this sector is seeing a slow recovery in the U.S. and Canada, mainly driven by the state of the construction industry and how much finished material it needs, he said.

On one hand, there is a low demand for finished steel. "But because there is a shortage of scrap, the pricing is relatively good at the moment," Waters said.

Waters predicts that prices will remain soft into the new year. In the short-term, he is cautiously optimistic, while in the long term, he is more optimistic. Steel Pacific has five Island locations, with more than half its 106 employees based in Victoria.

In Vancouver Island's favour is its proximity to Asian markets, such as China and Korea, he said.

Ellice Recycle, part of the Ralmax group of companies, is another major recycling operation in the same neighbourhood. It accepts a large array of materials, including ferrous (with iron) and non-ferrous metals, garbage, drywall, paint, paper, mattresses, and wood.

The Victoria recycling neighbourhood includes Ellice Recycle, 524 David St., Metro Waste Paper Recovery Inc., at the corner of Bridge and David streets, Steel Pacific Recycling, 2770 Pleasant St., International Paper Industries, 304 John St., Prism Hauling and Recycling, 419-157 Gorge Rd. E.., and Lehigh Northwest Materials, accepting gravel, rock and similar materials at 343 Bay St. Nearby at the Esquimalt Westshore Return-It Centre, 858 Esquimalt Rd., electronics, beverage and milk containers are accepted. Encorp has several Victoria-area locations.

In another part of town, Vic Williams, co-owner of the 54-year-old Williams Scrap Iron and Metals on Munns Road, said business is good.

"The prices have been fine since January."

Prices plummeted in late 2008 for a couple of months but rebounded early this year, he said. The business does not take cars or batteries, but accepts ferrous (which includes iron) and non-ferrous metals. "Prices for steel are better than they were 10 years ago."

Williams is used to the ups and downs of commodity prices. "It happens in the scrap business."

cjwilson@tc.canwest.com