Holiday greenery and Christmas tree recycling couldn’t be any easier! Simply remove all nonrecyclable materials such as tinsel, ornaments, lights and place your tree at the curb by 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, January 7, 14 or 21. The greenery collected will be composted or mulched into wood chips. Historically, yard clippings and other organic materials, such as Christmas trees, have made up over 20 percent of the material buried in the landfill. By recycling Christmas trees, residents divert the materials, saving limited landfill capacity for items that cannot be so easily recycled.

Rumpke Waste, Inc., was the successful low bidder for the City’s waste collection services.  In addition to Rumpke, CSI Waste Services also submitted a proposal.  Under the new contract, costs to the City would increase slightly for 2011, but decrease moderately in 2012 and 2013, with an option to continue services beyond 2013 with small increases in costs.

 Weekly curbside trash service is an expensive endeavor, currently costing Montgomery $566,750 annually. Under the contract that was due to expire at the end of 2010, waste collection services provided by Rumpke included waste collection, recycling pick-ups, yard waste removal, fall leaf collection services and holiday tree collection. These services also include the RecycleBank  Rewards Points component which has been funded by a grant for the past two years. The current cost service is $8.07 per residential/commercial unit per month, $3.01 per unit per month for curbside recycling, $1.90 per unit per week for yard waste collection, $1.75 per unit per week for five weeks for fall leaf collection and $1,000 for holiday tree collection.

 With the potential of a significant increase in cost, the City prepared its bid request with two options. Both options included the collection of curbside waste (garbage), recycling, yard waste, fall leaf collection and  holiday tree collection. Option I included the RecycleBank Incentive Program as is provided in the current waste collection services contract. Option II discontinued the RecycleBank Incentive Program. The City mailed the specifications for bids to Rumpke Waste Inc., and CSI, both operating in areas near Montgomery. Both contractors attended a mandatory pre-bid meeting at which time the City presented an overview of the bid specifications and answered questions with regard to the requested bid.

 On December 1, 2010, City Council authorized the City Manager to enter into a three year contract with Rumpke Waste, Inc. continuing the current service levels contained in the base bid until December 31, 2011. In January 2012, the City will discontinue the RecycleBank program. This “delay” in terminating the program will permit ample time for the staff to design and implement a public education program and allow citizens to redeem accumulated points through December 31, 2012.  Costs for this contract will  be $577,079 for the year 2011, representing a 1.8% increase over current costs, then $552,318 for the years 2012 through 2013, representing a 4.3% decrease. The City would have the option of extending this contract in 2014 and 2015 at a cost of $572,952, representing a 3.7% increase and again in 2016 and 2017 at cost of $593,586  representing a 3.6% increase.