Tenn. County Issuing RFP for Recycling Containers

The Metropolitan Government of Nashville, Tenn., and Davidson County's Department of Public Works, Division of Waste Management is issuing a Request for Proposals for the following services:

Option 1: Sell to Metro the following products and services.

Deliver at least 5,000 - 30 gallon carts, 5,000 - 60 gallon carts, and 120,000 -95 gallon carts for recycling and up to an additional 170,000 carts (300,000 total) for refuse collection in the USD of Metro Nashville. Deliver public litter cans for fully automated collection. Vendor to provide at least 10 and up to 30 cart dumpers and install on Metro equipment. Vendor to maintain carts for a 10 year period of time. Vendor may propose a maintenance program beyond 10 years if desired.

 Option 2: Provide Carts to Metro Under a Maintenance Agreement

Same as Option 1, but vendor retains ownership of the carts for the 10-year period of the agreement. Metro will take ownership of the carts at the end of the contract period. Vendor may propose a maintenance program with cart buy-back beyond the 10 year agreement if desired.

The region already has conducted pre-proposal conferences. Because of the size of the contract only a handful of the largest container manufacturers will be able to handle the program.

Interested parties will be able to submit their proposal by Aug. 14th. The government agency expects to make a decision on the manufacturer by the end of the month.

After determining the winning company, the manufacturer will have to begin supplying the Nashville Metro regions with containers by November.

One caveat to the program is that the Metro Council will have to sign the contract, which will likely take place in September.

A spokesman for the department involved in issuing the proposal said that cost will be only one factor that will go into the decision making process.