PAYT Waste and Recycling Program Re-Bid

History of Golden’s PAYT Waste and Recycling Program:

In 2007, City Council established specific goals for each area of sustainability- building, economic health, education and communications, energy, solid waste and recycling, transportation and water. The specific goal for solid waste and recycling is to reduce Golden’s solid waste stream contribution by 25% by 2017. To achieve this the City proposed a single hauler waste program and began to extensively gather citizen input.

In 2010, City Council passed Ordinance 1868 allowing the City to contract with Waste Management for waste and recycling services for residential properties, creating the City of Golden Pay-As-You-Throw waste and recycling program.

In 2015, the Golden City Council selected Alpine Waste & Recycling for a new 5-year waste hauling contract. Alpine Waste & Recycling was chosen for their low prices and ability to provide current and future services required by the Golden community. With this contract, the optional compost program was expanded to include every single family neighborhood in the city. This contract was extended for a year in 2020 due to circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

Currently the Golden PAYT waste and recycling program provides more than 4,500 households in Golden with trash and recycling services, and provides over 600 customers with composting service. A full list of current services offered by the program can be found at CityofGolden.net/Trash.

Goals of this Survey:

Earlier this year, the City collected community input via GuidingGolden.com in preparation for publishing a request for proposals (RFP) for a new five-year waste hauling contract. All residents (customers and non-customers) were welcome to submit input, and with this feedback the City aimed to do the following:

• Identify areas of improvement to existing services
• Measure interest in new/expanded services
• Prioritize customer’s experience

The results of this survey and relevant comments collected by City staff are available under the Documents tab on the right hand side of this page named "Residential Waste Services Survey Results".

Golden's Re-Bidding Process:

Four bids were received in response to a public request for proposals (RFP) for a new five-year contract as the current citywide single hauler contract expires on August 31, 2021. The RFP requested a base proposal for the standard services similar to the ones currently provided, an option to add organics collection as a 3rd stream of materials to be collected and several optional waste collection services. As anticipated, prices have increased slightly, even for the cost of retaining the same services provided through the current program. These are available for review under the Documents tab on the right hand side of this page, in addition to a price comparison of all for 4 bids.

The Community Sustainability Advisory Board reviewed the bids at their May 26th regular meeting and had the opportunity to provide recommendations to City Council about what services may best help the community to achieve its goals and which sustainability values might be most important in selecting a hauler. The meeting is available for viewing on the CityofGolden.net/Agenda page and the memo issued to the Board from City staff is available under the Documents tab on the right hand side of this page.

Next Steps & Further Opportunity for Comment:

Following the CSAB’s final recommendation to City Council, the next steps toward review, public input and adoption include:

• June 8th - City Council discussed the residential waste hauling bids at their regular meeting in order to award the next five-year contract. That meeting can be found at CityofGolden.net/Agenda (Agenda Item 12. Residential Waste Services Single Hauler Contract Discussion starts at the 47 minute mark).
• July 15th - City Council move to approve a resolution to amend residential waste fees, starting September 1, 2021. Council will also complete a second reading of potential amendments to Chapter 4.80. There will be a public input opportunity for additional comments at that time.