
193Recycling Industry
need for raw material has led them to become the most signicant purchaser of scrap
in several markets around the world, leading to the loss of aluminum recycling in
several countries (Kirchner, 2007a,b; Scharf–Bergmann, 2007). The advantage of
cheap Chinese labor for sorting and melting operations has been well noted; how-
ever, labor costs have risen signicantly in the industry since 2010 (Minter, 2011b),
and the need to meet previously ignored environmental standards evens the playing
eld still further. As a result, the Chinese secondary aluminum industry is begin-
ning to move down a familiar path—closing smaller and ...