City recycling gets council nod

An in-house city recycling pickup program may be in the works after Naples City Council voted Wednesday authorized the mayor and city manager to move forward on the $340,760-a-year project.

Because it’s the council’s last week before summer break and is considered an emergency situation, city officials don’t have to put a roughly $500,000 purchase for two rear-loading recycling trucks up for bid; the trucks would cost the city about $100,000 yearly. They also will consider hiring four new employees.

“It’s my understanding a few cities are getting back into the recycling business because of the cost,” Naples Public Works Director Dan Mercer told council.

The city will switch to an inhouse program because Waste Management Inc., whose $238,824 yearly contract expires June 19, alerted city officials in March that it didn’t want to renew its contract, citing hefty cost increases due to fuel costs, the inability to attract employees to the expensive area and other unspecified factors.

When city officials put the contract out to bid, Waste Management was the lowest bidder, at $707,855.76 to provide the current bin service, or $876,183.12 for the curbside service with optional 65-gallon containers. Calling the increase too great, city officials opted to do the work in-house, but didn’t have enough time to purchase trucks and hire employees before June 19.

Last Friday, Waste Management agreed to continue for 90 more days for an additional $21,000 monthly over the current contract price.

On Wednesday, Larry Berg, Waste Management’s district manager, explained that Waste Management trucks recyclables to its Orlando facility but plans to build closer facilities, near Miami and Sarasota. He said the county’s contract is cheaper because it was negotiated last year and includes industrial and commercial contracts.

Mercer said residents will place paper in one bin and other recyclables in another and they will be sorted at the curb and carted to Naples’ Solid Waste Management Facility. Later, they will be transported to Lee County’s dual-sort facility in Fort Myers, which won’t charge a processing fee and will provide Naples with revenue for its recyclables.

Once Collier County builds its single-source Materials Recovery Facility next to the airport, Naples will cut costs by transporting recyclables there.

Vice Mayor Johnny Nocera urged city officials to look at biodiesel trucks, and Councilman Gary Price asked that the city still pursue 65-gallon containers for a single-source program. Mercer said that was planned, but Naples hasn’t found a single-source location.

Councilwoman Penny Taylor, however, urged city officials to continue working with Waste Management to see if costs could be reduced.