Cards expands in the Midsouth market with new contract

Cards, the regional waste and recycling company based in Springdale, Arkansas, is accelerating its expansion into the Midsouth market with its receipt of the municipal residential and commercial franchise agreement for the city of Paris, Texas. The five-year contract is worth roughly $11 million, Cards notes in a press release.

The company says the franchise awards allow it to enter new markets and densify its overall service area, stimulating future growth.

“We’ve had our eyes on this market since the city of Anna award,” Director of Governmental Affairs Jason Fitzgerald says. The company began that exclusive contract to provide residential, commercial, and industrial trash collection in September 2020.

Fitzgerald says the competition for the Anna contract was “intense,” adding, “with us being the newcomer, winning the constituents’ trust was our primary focus. We are thankful for the opportunity [and] trust and look forward to future municipal RFPs [request for proposals] in the Texas market.”

The company will assume operations Feb. 1, 2024, for the residential franchise and Sept. 1, 2024, for the commercial franchise. Cards will deploy new equipment for curbside collection and business services.

Dustin Reynolds, chief revenue officer at Cards, says that new equipment will include commercial dumpsters, 96-gallon carts and residential Curroto-Can front-loaders. However, he adds, "As far as brands, we are sort of at the mercy of who can get them the quickest." 

Currently, the city hauls its own municipal solid waste but issued an RFP earlier in 2023 to independent haulers.

The city faced increasing challenges recruiting and retaining adequate staffing levels for its Solid Waste Department, necessitating the daily reassigning of staff from various other city departments, including Parks, Streets, Water, Sewer and Traffic Control, to staff trash trucks, ultimately leading the RFP, according to city sources, Cards says.

Paris is the county seat of Lamar County, Texas. Located in northeast Texas at the western edge of the Piney Woods, the population of the city is nearly 25,000, with roughly 7,800 households. It is located between Cards’ Anna, Texas; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Muskogee, Oklahoma; and Van Buren, Arkansas, operations, according to the company.