Cd'A garbage contract up for grabs

COEUR d'ALENE — The city of Coeur d'Alene's contract with Waste Management, Inc. is up for bid.

Waste Management has had a contract with the city for 16 years, beginning with a 10-year contract followed by two 3-year extensions. The contract annually pays $3.2 million for Waste Management to provide hauling services and recycling for roughly 16,000 residential and commercial customers within city limits.

"It's a pretty good-size contract," said Troy Tymesen, the city's finance director, adding companies will be bidding on about 40 different rates for different services.

Tymesen said four vendors have shown interest in the contract, which is open to anyone. The bid closes March 24.

A few changes could be on the horizon once the bids are reviewed in April and a solid waste collection provider is decided upon.

"At the last meeting, we asked that they talk about glass recycling and a few other items that I know the public has been vocal about," said Coeur d'Alene City Councilman Dan Gookin, who serves on the city's public works committee.

Single-stream recycling, sans glass, was introduced to the solid waste services in 2010.

"We’re asking the contractors if there’s any additional cost to process glass through the single-stream recycling program so we’ll get an idea on what that will look like," Tymesen said. "I have my own opinion of the economics of glass. We don’t have glass in the waste stream right now because it lowers the values of the recyclables ... The recycling program basically saves space in our landfill, which is worth something, but it doesn’t make sense to own the recyclables and then sell them at a loss. Somebody has to pay for it. That’s kind of where glass is right now. There’s not enough viable uses for glass."

He said glass in the single-stream recycling is problematic because of weight, cost and how it interacts with other materials, but other collection companies have found ways to keep it out of the single-stream while partnering with companies that can use the product. He said it's something the city will explore.

"I’m wide open to the subject. There’s a lot of material out there on glass recycling," he said. "I think it feels good because it weighs so much, but when gas prices are up, trucking tons of glass is very expensive and if you don’t have any way to sell it, what do you do with it?

"That’s the key on glass, if we can get creative."

Yard waste pickup by a sanitation service is also something that will be considered as proposals are submitted.

"Picking up yard waste saves time," Gookin said. "I take my yard waste to the dump. Could that be an option if a bid comes in at the same or lower cost?"

Gookin said he hopes to see bids from companies that will provide excellent and predictable service for a fair price.

"Let's see if we can lower the rates," he said. "If the bids all come in high, I'm going to be very disappointed.

"I'm always in favor of going out to bid," he continued. "I prefer the city goes out to bid for these services so we can provide the best rates for our taxpayers."

Info: www.cdaid.org/60 or call 769-2300.