EI
Environmental
Information Ltd.
¾¾¾¾¾¾
Commercial
Incinerators’ Demand Down 9% in 2001
Capacity
Decreases by 6%
Contacts: John McMurray Cary Perket
952/831-2473
858/488-4760
Minneapolis,
Minnesota — The EI Digest: Hazardous Waste Marketplace,
North America’s leading research service on hazardous waste
management, announced the results of its annual survey of the
commercial incineration sector. The report reveals that 16
commercial facilities in Canada and the United States incinerated
approximately 699,700 tons of waste in 2001. This was a decrease
of 9% from 2000, when 17 facilities reported incinerating 770,100
tons of waste. In addition, the report indicates that the
incineration sector’s capacity decreased 6% in this time,
dropping from 913,300 tons in 2000 to 862,800 tons in 2001.
“It was
not the best year for commercial incinerators, considering this
was the first year since 1996 that the amount of waste
incinerated decreased from the previous year,” comments EI
Researcher John McMurray. “In general, 2001 was an
off-year for hazardous waste generation due to the overall
economy. However, the prevailing view in the industry is that
despite the weak economy, overcapacity within the sector remains
the core problem.”
EI Senior
Analyst Cary Perket has a different perspective than the
prevailing view. “Closure over the last decade has
reduced truly excessive overcapacity to levels that are much more
reasonable and arguably necessary levels to provide additional
future capacity. In my view, the real issue here is that too much
of the capacity at the remaining facilities must be used to
produce a profit because of rock bottom pricing. The market has
reached a stage where pricing should increase, but such increases
will be difficult because the incinerators rely too heavily on
third-party TSDs and brokers who profit from the rock bottom
pricing.”
This report
appeared in the EI Digest: Hazardous Waste Marketplace, a
business research report published 10 times per year that covers
hazardous waste management issues. Further information on
the EI Digest can be found on the web (www.envirobiz.com),
one of the Internet’s leading sites for environmental
business research. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota,
Environmental Information, Ltd. (EI) specializes in research on
the environmental services and technology marketplace. For
further information, contact customer service at 952/831-2473 or
email ei@enviro-information.com