Civic Recycling stopped accepting metal from the public last week, and that part of the company’s operation will remain suspended until the end of the week.

Civic Recycling, which is located off Brown Station Road, purchases nonferrous metals from the public for resale, but mostly deals in aluminum. Employees said the collection shutdown has to do with metal market price fluctuations.

Civic Recycling Secretary and Treasurer Tracey Sims said the center does not typically shut down when a commodity’s price per pound drops but the center has done so over the past week to save money.

Sims cited the price per pound of aluminum as an example of a market dip that influenced the decision to close temporarily.

The price of aluminum has hovered around or above 80 cents per pound this year but has been on a decline since May, when the metal’s price peaked at about 87 cents per pound. The price dropped to about 77 cents per pound last week and is now at a yearly low of 75 cents.

Matt Drahl, marketing manager for Didion Orf Recycling Inc., which buys Civic Recycling’s nonferrous metals for processing, said he did not believe any of his company’s other suppliers had shut down because of the market. He said the price of aluminum has been “very volatile” recently and that he understands why smaller suppliers might be making the choice to temporarily stop collections.

Market fluctuations “cut into our profits a little, but not enough to where it makes or breaks us,” Drahl said. The price drops hurt smaller operations more, he said.

Sims said Civic Recycling expects the price of aluminum eventually to bounce back and that the company is working on other projects in the meantime.

“It’s just a market thing, and we should be back open by Friday at the latest,” Sims said. “It’s just not profitable for us or the consumer right now.”

Mid-MO Recycling, which collects electronics, and Advantage Metals, which takes a variety of metals, remain open for business. Representatives for Mid-MO and Advantage said they do not typically close in response to resale and market fluctuations.