Council scraps all bids on recycling

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Austin City Council tossed out all bids on single stream recycling on Thursday afternoon and decided to start the process over with a new proposal for the city's next recycling contract.

The city's current recycling contract ends at the end of September. Council was expected to approve a contract to build the city's new recycling center, known as a materials recovery facility. Staff had recommended Allied Waste Services as the low bidder, but a city commission urged the Council last night to scrap the contract and start the process over.

City staff said they recomended Allied Waste Services partially because of their community values and the fact that it was the only one of the three that had the city making money from things Austinites would recycle throughout the next 10 years. Allied Waste Services, however, is the parent company of the former Browning Ferris Industries, which frequently drew the ire of northeast Austin residents for odor and trash at its former landfill property off Giles Road.

Two proposals were put forward at Council. Council Member Randi Shade proposed rejecting all bids. Council Member Sheryl Cole suggested a delay a vote on the contract  to June 24, so that all aspects of the bid could be discussed in public.

Cole was joined by Council Member Bill Spelman, who prompted the city's new solid waste director Bob Gedert -- who joined the city after the contract went out to bid -- to say that he attributed the lack of respondents to the weak economy rather than how the city's original proposal for the contract was drafted.

The motion to scrap the proposals won, with Cole and Spelman opposing the vote.

In all, the city received eight proposals, including one from Texas Disposal System. Both TDS and Balcones are local companies. 

TDS operates a landfill and recyling center just south of Austin. The city lawyer disqualified the company's bid after they determined the company violated city lobbying laws.

However, some city council members - including Mayor Lee Leffingwell - have said they are not opposed to re-considering the TDS bid.