The Transportation and Public Works Committee will review the staff
recommendation for the city's recycling processing contract tomorrow,
Tuesday, February 3rd, at 9:30 a.m.
February 2, 2004
Dear Council Member Zimmermann,
We are writing in reply to Public Works Department's latest
recommendation to negotiate with Waste Management Inc (WMI) Recycle
America Alliance (RAA) for the city's recycling processing services
(issued on Friday). We are unsure why staff continues to recommend WMI
since our proposal resulted in the highest net revenue over the five
years reviewed and we met all of the other requirements.
While it is good news for recycling and the city of Minneapolis that
staff recently concurred with our opinion that WMI's "fixed rate"
proposal is not good for Minneapolis, they continue to recommend
negotiation with WMI/RAA first and then with us only in the event that
they cannot reach an agreement. Eureka Recycling offers more revenue
than WMI's "fixed rate" or "base rate" proposal and Eureka Recycling
offers four times more floor protection than WMI's "base rate" proposal.
So what are the concerns with selecting Eureka Recycling?
In their recommendation, the staff notes that Eureka Recycling has
"limited annual cash flow." Comparing our cash flow to WMI's or BFI's is
similar to comparing the cash flow of your neighborhood coffee shop with
those of Starbucks or your neighborhood bookstore with those of Barnes &
Noble. Our annual revenues this year were almost four million dollars
where WMI's latest reported annual revenues were $11.14 billion and
BFI's were $5.5 billion.
Eureka Recycling holds a ten year contract with the city of Saint Paul
that we have held and fulfilled for over 17 years. It appears that staff
is questioning our performance bond, but we included a letter from a
qualified bonding company stating that they would bond us on this
contract in our proposal. Although we are unsure what the final amount
of the bond will be since it is based on the amount of the contract, we
certainly agree to provide adequate bonds for this contract.
Concerning "Operational Risk", staff stated that our facility is under
construction. This is true but the construction is to add the ability to
process two-stream materials. Our facility currently handles materials
from the source separated program in Saint Paul which is very similar to
Minneapolis.
As an organization we have been handling approximately 100 tons per day
of Saint Paul's recyclables at a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) with
Weyerhaeuser in New Brighton since April 2003. We have invested over 3.5
million dollars into our new MRF at 2828 Kennedy St. in Minneapolis,
which is complete and ready to handle Minneapolis' materials if we are
awarded the contract.
Our facility manger, Carolyn Loper, has over ten years of experience
operating and managing MRFs including three years managing what WMI then
referred to as their largest MRF east of the Mississippi. Our equipment
operators, baler operator and our safety manager each have over ten
years of experience. Mr. Brownell, COO, and Ms. Hubbard, CEO, have each
developed, financed and managed recycling operations including MRF
operations for over 15 years. The organization has won numerous local,
state and national awards for our recycling programs.
Besides having the best pricing for the city of Minneapolis, we also
have a mission that benefits its residents. Because we are
mission-driven, our only reason for offering a proposal on processing
Minneapolis' recycling is to ensure that recycling remains sustainable.
There are positives and negatives in every situation and neither Eureka
Recycling nor WMI/RAA is perfect. But when it comes to a decision on a
contract that will impact the environment and Minneapolis' recycling
program for many years, we believe that it is important to consider our
motivation for providing services. Eureka Recycling's mission is to
reduce waste today through innovative resource management and to reach a
waste-free tomorrow by demonstrating that waste is preventable not
inevitable.
We hope this helps you in your decision. If you have any questions,
please feel free to contact us at (651) 222-7678.
Sincerely,
Susan Hubbard
CEO and President
Tim Brownell
COO and President
CC: Minneapolis City Council, Mayor RT Rybak
Posted by
Dianna Kennedy
Eureka Recycling
Longfellow Resident
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