Official Board Market Publication

Overview

Recycling is truly an environmentally beneficial practice, but there is also an economic side of the recycling process that relates to the global marketplace. In fact, the most commonly recovered and recycled material, old corrugated cardboard, is a leading market indicator for savvy economists around the world. Old corrugated cardboard (OCC) is not listed among the more commonly traded commodities, such as wheat, coffee beans or gold, but it is nonetheless, a commodity whose market value rises and falls with the global economic tides.

To complete the process of recycling, Metropolitan goes to market to sell recovered paper and cardboard to mills around the world. To track the market value of OCC as well as other grades of paper products, the recycling industry turns to the most reliable source of information, the Official Board Markets (OBM) publication; also known as the Yellow Sheet. Published on a bi-monthly basis, the OBM lists transacted prices for the more commonly recycled grades of recovered paper. If paper is our religion, then the OBM is definitely our bible.

Effective June 1, 2009, Metropolitan will include a link to the OBM which will permit interested parties to view a monthly pricing sheet of transacted paper stock prices for low and high grade paper. This feature will enable the public to become more aware of global market conditions on an as-needed basis.

Download a Monthly OBM:

OBM April 2009 PDF
OBM May, June, July, August PDF