Two companies are vying for the parish contract
When Hurricane Katrina made landfall 68 months ago, recycling in Jefferson Parish became a ghost. Since then, at least two efforts to revivify the program have failed.
View full sizeIn July 2007, William Sanders with the Jefferson Parish Department of Environmental Affairs dumps a load from a recycling bin into a truck at the Alario Center in Westwego as part of an community recycling day. But now, with a new administration and a calmer economy, there's a strong chance that Jefferson Parish residents will once again be filling curbside bins with empty cans, stacks of newspaper and plastic milk jugs. Glass, for several reasons, will not be part of the new deal.
Parish President John Young's administration received six proposals last month to bring back curbside recycling. It's a far better response than the two companies that answered the parish's previous proposal request in 2008.
An evaluation committee managed to winnow the list to two competitors. The other four, Organic Energy Corp., Richard's Disposal Inc., Waste Pro USA and Waste Management Inc., which had the contract before Katrina, were disqualified for not including required state affidavits disclosing any fees paid to other companies or individuals.
Of the two remaining proposals, from IESI Corp. and Allied Waste, the committee gave IESI the better score. The next move will be for the Parish Council to select one of the two so the administration can begin negotiations.
'I can't wait for it'
"I can't wait for it," said Myrtle Dubea, a recycling advocate who sat on the now defunct recommendation committee that tried to rejuvenate recycling in 2008. "It's just amazing that we have to throw all this stuff away."
View full sizeIn September, 2007, the Jefferson Parish Department of Environmental Affairs, in conjunction with Recycling Foundation of Baton Rouge, held a parishwide recycling day at the Joseph Yenni Building in Elmwood. Recycling in most of the greater New Orleans metropolitan area met its demise on Aug. 29, 2005, as Katrina roared ashore and spread chaos in its wake. Neighboring cities and parishes had enough trouble collecting debris, let alone sifting through it for items worth regenerating.
Jefferson Parish was among that number. Before the storm, it had a contract with Waste Management Inc. to collect recyclables. But that ended with damage to a major recycling processing plant on Airline Highway and the contract's expiration in March 2006.
Two years later, parish officials collected offers from only two recycling companies after a plan to share the service with New Orleans failed as too expensive. As an evaluation committee weighed the options, the market for recyclable goods, along with the rest of the national economy, bottomed out.
A survey in 2009 showed residents were hesitant about paying for the increased cost in the service, so recycling was tabled for another year.
Then Young took office in October, and suddenly recycling was back on the government's agenda. Dubea said she credits Young's mother, Jackie Vairin. Dubea said she asked Young shortly after his election whether he would revive the program.
Parish president says his mom wants recycling
"He said, 'I know I have to,' because his mother was on his case," Dubea said with a laugh. Vairin couldn't be reached last week.
IESI's proposal to collect recyclables from more than 110,000 residences in unincorporated Jefferson cost nearly half as much as the services offered by Allied Waste, also known as BFI and Republic Services Inc., according to the proposals. IESI stated it could pick up recyclables by hand once a week for $2.04 a month per household. It could do it for even less, at $1.49 per household, if it went with a twice-a-month service. IESI's most expensive service, semiautomated weekly pickup, would cost $4.07 a month.
By comparison, Allied Wasted projected that weekly pickup options will cost $5 per household and $4 for twice monthly service.
IESI currently has the contract to collect garbage from curbsides throughout Jefferson Parish.
None of the proposals offered to collect glass. While the economy and the markets for most recyclable goods has rebounded from the recession, glass remains too expensive for most companies to process.
"It's hard for people to accept, but glass should be a lower recycling priority," said Liz Davey, program manager for Tulane University's Office of Environmental Affairs. Being heavy, glass is expensive to haul and it's not energy-efficient to melt down and mold into new bottles, she said.
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Richard Rainey can be reached at rrainey@timespicayune.com or 504.883.7052.