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GFL awarded contract for solid waste and recycling services

As far as residential garbage and recycling pickup contracts are concerned, this one doesn’t appear to have generated the controversy of its predecessors.
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Green for Life Environmental will remain the provider of solid waste and recycling services in Estevan.

As far as residential garbage and recycling pickup contracts are concerned, this one doesn’t appear to have generated the controversy of its predecessors.

Estevan city council awarded the contract for the collection and hauling of residential solid waste and recycling in the city to Green for Life (GFL) Environmental during Monday night’s meeting.

It’s a three-year contract, and the city also has an option to extend the deal for another two years.

The city's current contract with GFL, which was reached in 2013, expires on June 30.

GFL purchased Regens Disposal last year.

The last two residential waste contracts have been controversial. In 2008, the city made the switch from manual to automated garbage pickup, angering some in the community. The most controversial part of the deal was a proposed switch from back alley to front yard pickup.

Council moved away from the front yard pickup plan, after receiving a petition that had more than 2,000 signatures. But that didn’t quell the anger of many residents.

Then five years ago, council moved forward with the switch to front yard pickup, despite strong lingering opposition. Curbside recycling was also introduced in the contract.

For the contract issued at Monday night’s meeting, the city issued a request for quotes (RFQ), and used a weighted system.

In a report to council, city manager Jeff Ward said the greatest emphasis was placed on the total bid price at 40 per cent. Also weighted were proposed service levels (25 per cent), conformance in meeting the primary objectives of the RFQ (15 per cent), past performance, references and vendor reliability (10 per cent), and implementation and termination plan (10 per cent).

GFL, Goliath Disposal and Emterra Group were the bidders.

In his report, Ward said Emterra Group's bid was significantly higher and would be outside the budgeted amount.

Both GFL and Goliath met all the criteria in the quotes, and were given full marks, so Ward said it came down to the bid price.

“The curbside portion of the quote was 33 per cent higher by Goliath over GFL. There was some additional service fees related to the recycling depot, oil disposal and specific yard sizes, put in by Goaliath that were less than GFL that made up about 14 per cent … of that, but in total it was lower for Green for Life,” said Ward.

The bid amounts for GFL and Goliath were not released.   

GFL finished with a score of 100, while Goliath had 94 points.

Mayor Roy Ludwig said the garbage contract has been a lightning rod for controversy in the past. This year was easily the smoothest waste contract he has seen since he joined city council in 1994.

“When we had the transition from manual to mechanized pickup, there was a lot of animosity. People thought there would be job losses, but now I think that we’ve travelled this far down the road, people realize that with the mechanized system it’s cleaner.

“In the past, with the old system, I remember litter being strewn up and down the back alleys. The dogs and cats, they would get in, and it was just a horrific mess. With the winds we had, it only compounded the issue.”

There won’t be any big changes with this contract, he said.

“We’ll see a reduction in price because of the competitive tendering, which is a bonus,” said Ludwig.

The points system used this year allowed the city to weigh all three options very closely. And while Emterra was lacking, the other two were not.

While it wasn’t listed as a factor in the points system, Ludwig said GFL’s local presence was likely beneficial for them.

“It’s a points system,” said Ludwig. “There are many other factors that came into it. It wouldn’t have been on local alone. It was also price and a lot of the other factors that came into it.”