Dive Brief:

• The Summerville, SC Town Council voted late last week to award a three-year contract to Carolina Waste & Recycling for collection of residential waste and some recycling, as reported by The Post and Courier. The contract is set to begin Aug. 1.
• Carolina Waste submitted a bid of $8.76 per household per month to collect waste and paper recyclables, including cardboard. The company offered single-stream recycling pick-up plus solid waste collection at a rate of $144 annually per household, about $26 more than Summerville was paying Waste Pro for the same service.
• The town and Carolina Waste can renegotiate the contract over single-stream recycling collection after nearby Charleston County opens its new recycling facility, which is expected some time in 2019.

Dive Insight:

In choosing a new hauler, Summerville also fielded bids from Republic Services and Pink Trash, but at significantly higher rates. Republic offered $19.25 per household per month and Pink Trash offered $14.61 per household per month.

Until very recently, Summerville had a new, three-year contract with Waste Pro. But, after months of missed collections and not delivering carts while claiming otherwise, the town broke off the deal. The company has faced similar concerns in North Carolina recently but has been granted more time to resolve them.

Summerville had ended recycling in 2015 because the Charleston County facility closed; Waste Pro said in its bid that it could reinstate recycling in 2018. The limited approach (paper and cardboard only, for now) that Summerville is taking will likely help the local government keep costs down for residents without wiping out faith in recycling programs.

Focusing on source-separated fiber products could also keep Carolina Waste from losing too much money on processing materials like plastic or glass that can be hard to find markets for under current conditions. Some companies, like Waste Management, have found some success partnering with domestic companies, like Pratt Industries, for paper recycling, instead of exporting.