The Alabama Environmental Council will permanently close its Community Recycling Center in Avondale on Dec. 13, unless the group can find a “successor” to take over the operation, executive director Felicia Buck said in a news release.

The group says falling prices for recycled products exacerbated by current trade disputes with China have hurt the group’s ability to maintain the keep the center open. It will be open on Thursdays only, until Dec. 13, when it will shut down for good.

“AEC has kept the Center open for the past year despite a massive reduction in income from the sale of materials,” the release said. “Trade restrictions on recycled material have caused the price for materials to drop to historic lows. AEC can no longer subsidize this public service.”

The center accepted some plastics, paper, was one of the few places that Birmingham-area residents or businesses could recycle glass, batteries, electronics, ink and toner cartridges or other items that many curbside collection services do not accept.

Target stores accept household glass for recycling, but few other options are available. UAB operates a recycling drop-off facility at 620 11th Avenue South that accepts paper, plastics, toner cartridges and some electronics, but not glass.

The AEC (previously called the Alabama Conservancy) has operated a recycling center in Birmingham since the 1970s, relocating from 25th Street North in downtown to Avondale in 2016. The group purchased and refurbished a glass pulverizer to reduce tons of glass bottles into a smooth rubble of particles less than 3/8 of an inch in diameter, but struggled to find a market for that product. The center stopped accepting glass from drop-off customers in January and never resumed. The group also offered local bars and restaurants an option to collect glass bottles in bulk for recycling.

After exiting the recycling business, the AEC says it will focus on other priorities, including environmental education initiatives, and advocating for policies to advance recycling, conserve public lands and promote energy and conservation policy changes at the state level.

“By shifting away from industrial-scale recycling operations, AEC will be reallocating energy and finances to other significant programs, and able to focus on our historical mission: addressing environmental and conservation needs in Alabama,” the group said.