1A, Residential Curbside Recycling - Contract Discussion

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contract for their own recycling services). The current contract is set to expire on March 1, 2013. The contract had allowed for two one-year renewal options, which were acted upon in 2010. The current contract and first amendment are included as Attachment B. The City currently uses two-stream recycling with Eureka Recycling (sometimes referred to as dual stream or two-sort recycling). Two-stream recycling requires residents to separate mixed paper(newspaper, cardboard, office paper, mail,phone books, milk and juice cartons, pop and beer boxes, etc) from mixed rigid containers (cans, glass, and plastic bottles). Eureka Recycling also allows residents to recycle clothes and linens. In addition to these items, Eureka expanded the materials they collect to add pizza boxes in 2011. Post consumer recycling markets plummeted in October 2008, and hit their lowest point in January 2009. Due to the drop in the market,the City did not receive revenue share for several months from Eureka. Recycling markets have been steadily rising since their low point in January 2009; though seem to have leveled off in the past several months. RFP Process VS. Contract Renegotiation The City currently needs to decide whether to move forward with a contract renegotiation for an extension with Eureka, or to go out for an RFP for a new curbside recycling contract. If the City Council directs staff to pursue a contract extension with Eureka, direction is also needed as to what aspects of the contract should be renegotiated. There are many factors that will play into both a decision to renegotiate the current contract, or how to review and score RFP responses. The City will need to determine its priorities in terms of its decision to seek a contract extension with Eureka, or to go out for RFP. Those priorities can be quantitative, such as cost of service and types of materials collected; or they can be more subjective, such as level of customer service, respect for the community streets, or educational materials or incentives provided in order to increase resident participation. Staff is seeking feedback from the Council on what the City's priorities ought to be, and which direction should be pursued. If the Council prefers to extend the City contract with Eureka, but wants additional information on comparative pricing there are easier ways to get this information than going through an RFP process. Staff can ask the County to authorize Foth to work with the City to compare costs in order to put the City in a better position to renegotiate this item with Eureka if it is appropriate to do so. The following memo outlines the biggest issues to be considered when determining whether to go out for an RFP or not. Revenue Share Currently the City pays Eureka $3.20 per household per month to collect recycling materials. Eureka, in turn, processes the materials and provides back to the City 50 percent of net revenue P:TlanningTecycling&Garbage 12012109-24-12-Work Session-Memo-Recycling Contract Discussion.doc Page 2 of 7