NEW ORLEANS – Today, Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced that two local companies Richard’s Disposal Inc. and Metro Service Group won a low bid to provide garbage collection under two new contracts that will result in approximately $4 million in savings to the City in 2017 and $5.386 million every year through the seven-year term of the contracts. These two contracts cover recycling and garbage collection for all eligible residences and small businesses in New Orleans with the exception of the French Quarter and Downtown Development District which are covered under a separate contract. The current contracts were procured as a result of a bid in 2006.
“Since taking office six and half years ago, we’ve made the tough decisions necessary to get New Orleans headed in the right direction and our hard work is continuing to pay off,” said Mayor Landrieu. “With the successful procurement of these two sanitation contracts, we’re honoring our fiduciary responsibility to secure good value for our taxpayers’ dollars at a price the City can afford. The savings generated from these two new contracts is significant and will allow us to continue to invest in our residents’ priorities like public safety, streets, job creation, creating more opportunities for our kids and working toward a cleaner city. This is a big win for the residents of New Orleans and another sign of our City’s strength.”
Contracts were selected through an open and competitive process consistent with the procedures championed by Mayor Landrieu since taking office, City reps said.
The contracts include provisions requiring the contractors to pay employees a living wage of $10.55 per hour.
With today’s procurement, there will be no change in garbage collection service providers as both contractors, Richard’s Disposal and Metro Service Group, currently have contracts with the City for each respective service area. Curbside trash collection of solid waste will continue twice weekly in both service areas and recycling collection will continue once weekly. The City will continue to pay disposal costs.
The new contracts begin April 1, 2017 and last through 2024 with three options for one-year extensions.
All eligible and occupied service locations will have their existing City-issued trash roll-carts replaced with new carts around April 1, 2017. Any eligible and occupied location that has not previously been issued a recycling cart, should call 311 to request a recycling cart.
Within six months of the effective date, all trucks must be model year 2014 or newer and equipped with GPS tracking. In an effort to lower emissions, garbage and recycling trucks used to provide services under the contracts must operate on alternative fuel within a certain amount of time – 25 percent within one calendar year, 50 percent within two calendar years, and 100 percent within three calendar years.
The projected 2017 total savings for both service areas is $4 million. Together, these two contracts are worth over $22 million and cover trash collection for the entire City, excluding the French Quarter and Downtown Development District. Empire Janitorial Services collects trash from Esplanade Avenue to the Pontchartrain Expressway and from Rampart Street to the River in the French Quarter and from N. Claiborne Avenue to the River in the Downtown Development District.
In 2010, the City was paying $31.2 million for regular curbside collection contracts. The estimated final cost for 2016 is $31.18 million due to renegotiations by the City in 2011. Our total cost for curbside collection citywide in 2017 is down to nearly $26 million. Without the renegotiations in 2011, the cost would have increased considerably instead of decreased.
The City issued two Invitations to Bid on September 22, 2016 Areas 1 and 2. The City opened the five bids for Service Area 1 and the four bids for Curbside Collection Solid Waste, Areas 1 and 2. The City opened the five bids for Service Area 1 and the four bids for Service Area 2 on October 13, 2016 to determine which bidders had submitted the lowest apparent bids. The five bids for Service Area 1 included: Metro Service Group, Richard’s Disposal Inc., Ramelli Janitorial Service Inc., FCC, and Waste Pro of Louisiana, Inc. The four bids for Service Area 2 included: Metro Service Group, Richard’s Disposal Inc., FCC, and Waste Pro of Louisiana Inc.
