Don’t be surprised if your streets have been missing a few manhole covers lately—bolstered by the same market pressures that jacked the price of oil to record highs earlier this year, commodity prices, and metals especially, are hitting highs across the board. And just as inflation, market volatility, and increased demand have brought record profitability to oil companies, high metal prices have brought prosperity to an unusual source: recycling firms. 

The bulge in recycling company profits may be far less speculative that that of oil, too, especially when you consider that making a new plastic bottle from an old one consumes 80 percent less energy than making a new one from oil. Toss in a still-historically-high oil price, and the deal gets even sweeter. 

So while some US cities continue to essentially ignore recycling, investors haven’t made the same mistake; investments in waste and recycling totaled $622 million last year, easily besting the $245 million figure of 2006. While it’s not an entirely safe bet—commodity busts were a regular feature of the 1980s and 90s—it still seems like an attractive way to make investments that line up with a green outlook.