Dive Brief:

• A $1 billion waste and recycling contract with the Central Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority in California will be awarded to one or more companies who submitted a proposal.
  The company that is chosen must meet established criteria such as a 75% diversion rate. The board has stated they may separate the bids for collection, transfer station operations, disposal recycling and food waste.
  The nine companies who submitted bids will be the contracted company for the next decade with the county, with a probable ten year extension put into place when it expires.

Dive Insight:

Allied Waste has been the contracted trash collection company since 1990 while Valley Waste Management has handled the recycling and organic waste services. Both of those contracts are set to end on March 1, 2015. Companies who submitted bids include Republic Services (which bought Allied in 2008), Recology, Garaventa Enterprises and Waste Management.

The contract at stake is being taken seriously, even to the point where board members making public note of chance encounters with bidders and has prompted supervisors and the city council to ban campaign contributions from companies who placed bids.