On average, the city of Oxford generates 6,030 tons of landfill waste a year at the Rumpke landfill, according to David Treleaven, environmental specialist in the Oxford Service Department. The city reopened bidding for city waste collection Thursday.
Although there were originally multiple bidders, Treleaven said the bidding is between Rumpke and C.S.I. waste services.
Each contract is for two years, with up to three years of contract extensions. Competitive pricing and environmental changes, for example, must be taken into perspective when choosing a city waste collector, Treleaven said.
Rumpke is the current contract holder and is a bidding contestant.
"Rumpke is one contractor who picked up the bid package and attended the mandatory pre-bidding meeting," Treleaven said.
But in addition to looking at trash collection prices, the city wants to also concentrate on making recycling more of a priority.
According to City Councilor Alysia Fischer, Oxford has a 20 percent recycling rate, which is the highest in the county, but due to the city's high environmental awareness, Fischer said 20 percent is only a starting place.
"We want more recycling than we have now, which is only plastics No. 1 and No. 2, and only if they're bottles," Fischer said. "So I know that is a core part of the new request for proposals."
Treleaven said Rumpke has addressed these concerns in the form of a new plan if they get the bid for the next two to five years.
"If Rumpke gets it (the bid), they're putting in an optical scanning unit," Treleaven said. "And this will increase plastic recycling to accept a higher percentage of waste into recycling."
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