Stan Reagan, coordinator of Warren County’s division for environmental planning and technical assistance, warned early on in the process of awarding new franchises for solid waste hauling and recycling that change was likely coming.
As with many changes involving government services, this one is taking time.
The county’s solid waste committee has been sorting through proposals from nine potential vendors for residential garbage hauling, recycling and commercial and industrial waste disposal.
Recommendations for a new exclusive residential franchise for city of Bowling Green residents as well as for the non-exclusive franchises for county residents was hoped for at the Feb. 11 Warren Fiscal Court meeting, but it didn’t happen.
As Reagan explained: “With any request for proposal process, what you want and what you get don’t always line up. Some of the proposals were weak or ill-defined.”
As a result, fiscal court voted Feb. 11 to grant authority to Reagan, county Public Works Director Josh Moore and attorney Shawn Alcott to enter into negotiations with one or more potential solid waste and recycling vendors and report back to fiscal court.
“It’s not necessarily going to be based on the low bid,” Reagan said. “We want proposals that are in the best interest of Warren County.”
Reagan expects franchises for commercial and industrial vendors to be awarded soon.
After that, he said the non-exclusive franchises for county residents “may be the next thing that gets awarded. The recycling side of it might hold it up. We’ve had people express that they’d like to see recycling return.”
That desire was made clear during a public meeting held as part of the process of awarding new solid waste franchises.
A number of speakers expressed their desire for a return of the curbside recycling service that was provided by Southern Recycling (now SA Recycling) from 1995 until 2020, when international market forces led the company to drop the service.
The future of recycling will depend in large part on what decision is made about awarding the exclusive solid waste franchise for the city.
Currently, Scott Waste Services has an exclusive solid waste contract within the city of Bowling Green, but four other companies – Waste Connections, Republic Services, Taylor Sanitation Service and Waste Management Inc. – have non-exclusive franchises in the county.
Scott is again bidding for the city franchise and has submitted two options in its proposal. One option lists a monthly fee of $19.37 for basic solid waste services. An enhanced option, with additional services for bulk items and yard waste, costs $22.10 per month.
The company is offering as its nod to recycling to establish four large recycling drop-off stations around the city.
“It would give people who want to recycle an option,” said Pete Reckard, Scott Waste’s district manager.
Republic Services is also going after the exclusive city franchise, and its proposal includes a more-robust recycling component.
Don Collins, Republic’s area senior manager for municipal sales, said Republic’s proposal is for a voluntary twice-monthly recycling program for city residents that could be expanded into the county.
The company is proposing to handle pickup of trash, yard waste and recycling in the city for a monthly fee of $24.75. Residents who opt out of recycling would pay $20.75 for solid waste pickup.
Regardless of who is awarded the exclusive city franchise, Reagan expects changes from the current arrangement.
The biggest change will be ending the practice of “back-door” trash pickup in favor of strictly curbside pickup, except in cases where a resident isn’t physically able to bring the trash container to the curb.
“The problem with collecting (trash) from behind houses is that people get missed and then we get complaints,” Reagan said. “That’s going to change.”
Reagan said the city exclusive franchisee will provide primarily curbside pickup.
“The waste hauler will provide a new trash container to each resident,” Reagan said. “You might also have a can for yard waste and one for recycling.”
Reagan emphasized that the longstanding practice of “back-door” collection isn’t going away entirely.
“Every proposal has to provide that type of service to people who need it,” Reagan said.
The county solid waste committee will also be mulling over a different sort of curbside recycling proposal, this one from a Utah-based company called Recyclops.
Recyclops has a recycling business model that company Vice President of Sales Dennis Wise called a “subscription service, not unlike Netflix.”
Wise said Recyclops operates in 18 states and more than 170 cities, providing curbside pickup of recyclables to those residents willing to pay its subscription fee.
The company’s proposal is to allow city of Bowling Green residents to opt in to its every-other-week curbside recycling pickups for a fee of $8.50 per month. For another $5 per month, the company will pick up glass. A mandatory countywide program would cost $7 per month, with the $5 option for glass.
Recyclops would utilize independent contractors to pick up the recyclables, which would be taken to Nashville for processing.
Sifting through the various proposals and negotiating with the companies may take a while longer, Reagan said.
“I don’t think we’ll have any answers this month,” he said.
