Only a few months ago, one of the biggest problems facing the global recycling industry was how to stop thieves from making off with the goods. A near-insatiable demand for raw materials drove the price of scrap metal into the stratosphere and inspired opportunistic thieves to steal copper cables and iron manhole covers to sell on the booming black market.

Those problems now seem laughably small compared with the havoc wrought in the past six months by a collapse in industrial production, which has caused the market for recyclable materials to evaporate.