Dive Brief:

• Glenview, IL has extended its contract with Groot Industries of Elk Grove Village for 10 years. In exchange, Glenview will pay less for landscape waste pickup, is guaranteed no garbage collection rate increase through 2017, and will actually see a 50% cut in fees at town-owned facilities allowing for $8,500 annual savings. Free food scrap composting will also be added if and when 30% of a consortium of communities sign up, according to the Chicago Tribune.
• Groot will collect up to 2.5% more for residential services in 2017-2018 and another 1% to 2.75% from 2018-26, depending on the CPI.
• The company was eligible for a 0.9% collection fee increase but agreed to the freeze to secure the long contract. This is despite that haulers in surrounding communities recently received annual fee hikes of 1.5% to 3.5%.

Dive Insight:

"For a contract as big as ours, any company would be interested in keeping it," Brent Troxell, Glenview’s deputy director of public works, told the Chicago Tribune. "They wanted security in the length of the contract. We wanted to figure out ways it could be as cost-effective for the village as possible."

Extending the agreement this year rather than next turned out to be a good deal for Glenview.  

"We just evaluated the market," said Troxell. "Other communities were at a competitive place with their bids and negotiations. We saw the rate structure starting to change. We wanted to make sure we got the best possible rate structure for the residents."

For Groot, the payback will likely be happy customers, as putting cash back in customers' pockets and ultimately showing good faith has been shown to go a long way.