The Summit County Council at their last meeting talked about the RFP they will put out to solicit bids for their next garbage contract.
They’re not only looking to continue their basic services, but considering some new options to handle or recycle waste.
And more in the near future, the Council will be busy over the next two months discussing and approving the 2021 budget. We asked Council member Kim Carson about the county’s prospects.
The county’s current contract with Republic Services will expire by the end of June 2022. They plan to put out an RFP by the first quarter of next year and award a contract by August.
We asked Council Member Kim Carson if they are going to attract many candidates. She said that’s certainly the million-dollar question.
“The goal is to meet the service level of our current contract. But that’s just for a base comparison. So we need to be able to have that to compare the different vendors that may submit an RFP. And then we’re adding in these alternative proposals and encouraging a proposal for particularly these opt-in services, such as bulky items—being able to, for instance, put a couch out and have them come and pick it up for an additional fee—green waste, and then food waste, as you mentioned. I think food waste is an area that we can really focus in on.”
She said if a company doesn’t want to handle, for example, food waste, they could seek out a vendor to provide that service individually.
Another big question is if they can encourage recycling among homeowner associations and multi-family residential areas.
“And what’s difficult, especially in the Park City area, is that so many of those are used for tourists when they come and visit. So you have somebody different in those condos every week. So it’s hard to educate people. But it doesn’t mean we don’t try. I think there’s a lot that can be done.”
With the volatility of the current recycling market, she said the county is thinking about how to focus on a few materials.
“One thing we talked about last night was working directly with the recycler to identify products that we should try to limit our recycling to, that’ll make it more valuable to them. And if we say, “Okay, we’re just gonna recycle these four main items.” Metal still has some value. Cardboard still has some value to it, and cardboard takes up a lot of room in the landfill, and maybe one or two of the plastics. And then just really focus on educating people that, this is what we’re recycling. It’s just really difficult when it is changing, and then the markets are so low right now.”
Another idea they’re interested in is “waste to energy” composting.
“And in that case, you accept all the waste. There may be some particularly valuable items that you still try to recycle. But for the most part, everything is collected and then converted to energy.”
Meanwhile, the Council also received their County Manager’s recommended budget for 2021.
We asked what’s the likelihood of a future Truth In Taxation hearing—that is, a tax increase?
“I think we have to be committed that we would look at that every 4 to 5 years. And we did it last in ’17. So I think it’s important for us to have that discussion next year and see if we’d wanna propose that for the 2022 budget. And I couldn’t begin to tell you what that would look like right now.”
She said that the 2017 tax increase was successful.
“We’ve been able to build back up our fund balances in both the general fund and the municipal-services fund. So those are now back within our target range, in fact towards the upper end of that. That just brings a huge level of comfort going into this next year, since there’s so many unknowns still.”
Summit County Council member Kim Carson.
