Saint Paul awards waste, recycling contracts

The city of Saint Paul, Minnesota, has entered a seven-year contract with Houston-based FCC Environmental Services to provide waste, yard waste and bulky item collection services to 90 percent of the one- to four-unit households in the city beginning April 1, 2025. Saint Paul will provide collection services to the remaining 10 percent of one- to four-unit households.

“This evolution of our hauling programs advances our city’s sustainability goals while addressing all of the concerns we most commonly hear from residents,” Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter says.

As part of the agreement, FCC Environmental will invest more than $25 million for a new Saint Paul facility that will include a compressed natural gas (CNG) station; purchase more than 30 new collection trucks fueled by CNG; acquire fully electric pickups for route managers; and purchase an electric box truck for bulk and appliance pickup.

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The new contract will usher in changes to the citywide waste management program, including increased bulky item collection and opt out and cart sharing options for property owners beginning in 2026. Property owners will now also receive quarterly bills from the city after services have been rendered, and the city will process all customer service requests regarding waste and recycling concerns.

Saint Paul has also entered a five-year contract with Minneapolis-based Eureka Recycling for the collection of recyclable materials from approximately 80,000 properties with one- to four-units beginning Nov. 1. The city has entered a 7-year contract with FCC Environmental to provide recycling collection services to approximately 48,000 residential properties with five or more units beginning in November as well.

“As a city, we have ambitious short- and long-term goals for our citywide garbage and recycling programs,” says Sean Kershaw, director of Saint Paul Public Works. “We are excited to partner with FCC and Eureka in this bold step to work closely with our residents for every household to take a more proactive role to reduce, reuse and recycle more materials and create overall less waste collectively as a community.”

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In January 2022, Saint Paul leaders established a Garbage Advisory Committee of interested residents to learn more about the city’s existing coordinated collection program and provide feedback and input for the next iteration of the city’s waste program. The Garbage Advisory Committee created recommendations for ways to improve operations and services to meet the changing needs of residents.

In November 2023, the city of Saint Paul issued a request for proposals (RFP) for waste, bulky, recyclables and yard waste collection services. The RFP included draft contract language outlining required services from haulers, including limited opt out provisions, cart sharing from multiunit and adjacent single-family homes, billing and customer services provided by the city and city-led maintenance and repairs. The city says it used many of the key recommendations from the Garbage Advisory Committee to draft the RFP.

Saint Paul received nine proposals by the December 2023 deadline, and says all nine proposals were scored, evaluated and interviewed. The RFP process was completed in February, and final negotiations were completed in April after the contracts were initially awarded.