Nebraska City Set to Put Recycling Programs Up for Bid

The city of Omaha, Neb., is expected to release three bids for companies to handle and process recyclables generated by the city. The winners of the bid are expected to begin the collection and recycling program the beginning of 2006.

The city of close to 400,000 has had as its vendor Deffenbaugh Recycling, for the past ten years. The company services the roughly 120,000 households in the city.

According to Mary Grate with the city of Omaha’s Quality Control Division, the city will be issuing three bids, each covering a different segment of the recycling system. The first system will focus on the collection of recyclables from the city. The plan is for the contract to extend for ten years. The second bid will focus on yard waste, and is designed to be a seasonal bid. The third bid will look for a vendor who is able to handle the processing of the material.

The city expects that one of the biggest changes to the program will be to move the system from a seven sort operation to either a one- or two-sort system. This, Grate notes, should cut down on the amount of litter generated with a more far flung collection program.

While the city expects to continue handling most of the same materials, one recyclable commodity that may not be collected with the new program could be glass. Grate says that the decision to eliminate glass came after discussion with industry representatives, who note that the inclusion of glass greatly degrades the quality of the recyclables.

According to local press reports residents of Omaha pay around $12 million a year for garbage, yard-waste and recycling services.

While the plan will likely eliminate glass from the curbside collection program, the city will add drop-off containers for people to deliver their glass.