The price of waste paper in Hong Kong has collapsed due to reduced demand from Chinese paper manufacturers, as the financial slowdown hits the recycling industry, reports said Wednesday.
The price of waste paper paid by exporters has dropped from 1,600 Hong Kong dollars (205 US) a tonne in mid-summer to just 400 in recent days, the South China Morning Post reported.
Recyclers said a similar price cut had also affected the waste metal trade, according to the Post.
Some exporters have even halted collections, the report added.
Leung Yiu-cheong, head of the Hong Kong General Association of Recycling Business, said factories in southern China had stopped taking recycled waste for the past month because of reduced overseas orders, Apple Daily reported.
He said some of the city's recycling businesses may have to sack their staff or face closure in the coming months, the Chinese-language paper said.
The drop has also cut into the income of Hong Kong's army of street collectors, often women, who earn small incomes from collecting paper and plastic from around the city, the Post said.
The city's recycling firms are now threatening to stage a slow-drive protest on Monday to urge the government to offer more help to the flagging industry, the Post added.
Waste paper can be a lucrative business. Chinese scrap paper merchant Zhang Yin topped China's rich list in 2006, reportedly worth 3.4 billion dollars after her Nine Dragons Paper was publicly listed.
