Former Allentown Trash Hauler Loses Appeal

The former trash hauler for Allentown, Pa., has lost an appeal challenging the city's decision to award a two-year trash collection and recycling contract to a competitor.

Commonwealth Court upheld a decision by a Lehigh County judge who wouldn't invalidate the contract to Waste Management of Pennsylvania Inc., whose $12.7 million bid was lower than Solid Waste Services Inc.

Earlier this year, Solid Waste Services, doing business as J.P. Mascaro & Sons, asked a Lehigh County judge to grant an injunction stopping the contract from being awarded.

Solid Waste Services, which had provided collection and disposal services to the city since 1986, was one of four bidders. Its contract with the city expired in June.

In April, Judge Lawrence J. Brenner concluded that Waste Management's bid met city specifications and that Solid Waste Services didn't prove that an injunction was justified.

Solid Waste Services appealed to Commonwealth Court, which agreed with Brenner's ruling in an order entered Monday.

Pasquale Mascaro, president of J.P. Mascaro, said he believed the specifications prohibited bidders from using compaction-type vehicles for recyclables, which Waste Management and two other bidders use.

Mascaro said that allowing the other bidders to use those vehicles gave them an unfair bidding advantage because the vehicles are more cost-effective.

But Brenner and Commonwealth Court President Judge James Gardner Collins said the city didn't have a blanket prohibition against compaction vehicles. The city said compacting vehicles could be used as long as recyclables weren't damaged and made unmarketable.

Witnesses for the city said a section of the bidding specifications prohibited typical garbage trucks that could crush recyclables. The specifications weren't intended to prohibit vehicles with modest compaction capabilities, the city said.