FAQ

Regardless of the company the City selected through the competitive procurement process (Dec 2018), a signed private road waiver is a requirement of the new contract. This requirement is now common in neighboring cities and would have been required even if the City had started a new contract with the current hauler, Republic Services.

A new FAQ on the Private Roads Waiver can be found in the Document Library

There will be two smaller LAV's as part of the contract, intended for use in narrow/tight locations. These will be comparable to the LAV's used by Republic Services under the current contract. In general, Recology intends to use these vehicles for the periphery of the Island where most of the narrow streets and private roads/drives are located.

The City asked for a contract extension, but Republic declined due to uncertainty in the recycling markets. Republic was not willing to renew the existing contract without a major rate increase, so the City launched a competitive RFP process to locate the best proposal with the most competitive rates.

For weekly service of a 32/35-gallon garbage cart, Republic’s best final offer was $32.39/month (a rate increase of 17.5%). This proposal did not include new trucks or any new collection carts.

Recology’s rate for weekly service of a 32/35-gallon garbage cart was $29.78/month. Recology’s rate package included new collection trucks and new collection carts. This was an increase of 8% over current Republic rates. Both rates include recycling and one 96-gallon compost cart. [Note: after that portion of the negotiation was concluded, the City Council chose to add a $2.26/mo surcharge to hedge against the significant future uncertainty of international recycling markets due to China's much stricter acceptance standards]. 

The new Recology contract switches compost collection to weekly service from every-other-week. Therefore, it’s likely that many residents will need fewer carts. Even Republic would not have continued the three free carts that residents have today. Occasional extra yard waste can also be placed in 32-gallon paper bags that will be collected for $3.00 each.

Yes, under the Recology contract, the increase for an average residential customer using a 32- or 35-gallon cart (the most common size) is expected to be about 8% over current rates.

Recology has produced a special page for the Mercer Island contract: all the rates can be found there.

See: www.recology.com/recology-cleanscapes/mercer-island/your-three-carts/

A full two pages of FAQ (31 May 2019) can be found in the Document Library