Dive Brief:

• Downtown New Orleans neighborhoods and small businesses will be able to recycle glass starting this month — a service that has not been provided in the 10 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf region.
• The city reached a $3.9 million agreement with Metairie, LA-based company Empire Janitorial Sales & Services for glass pickup for just over 4,000 businesses and households in the French Quarter and the Central Business District.
• The city considered proposals from three other companies, but decided on Empire after it agreed to charge $3.50 per customer. 

Dive Insight:

Glass recycling presented a huge problem to a city with many urgent needs. The weight made it nearly impossible to transport at a reasonable rate and profits in glass recycling have shown steep declines. In addition to collecting glass, Empire also has agreed to sweep and pressure wash the streets and collect the waste produced by the city's horse and mule carriages as well as operate smaller, alternative fuel trucks on the narrower historic streets. No wonder then that the city declined bids of $6.8 million from Richard's Disposal Services and $5.7 million from Progressive Waste Solutions.