Plantation Takes Bids For Waste After 37 Years.
BY BUDDY NEVINS
After 37 years, Plantation has finally taken competitive bids to choose which company will pick up the city’s household waste.
Only two haulers submitted bids — the city’s longtime hauler Waste Management and Waste Pro, a firm with business in eight Southern states which picks up waste at more than 300,000 homes and 3,500 businesses in Southeast Florida.
Sources say Waste Pro submitted the low bid, but whether the firm’s proposed to offer the identical service as Waste Management could not be immediately gauged.
Mayor Diane Veltri Bendekovic was surprised by receiving only two bids. She broke a tie vote on the City Commission earlier this year to accept bids.
Diane Veltri Bendekovic
“I thought we would have more interest,” the mayor said.
Waste Management currently picks up trash two times-a-week from homes and hauls away bulk items once-a-month. At the direction of city hall, the firm requires home owners to purchase large blue bags in most of the Plantation.
The blue bags are loved by some who like to pay just for what they thrown out. But other residents contend the large plastic bags are environmentally unsound and are often ripped open by ducks and other animals, scattering the trash in the street.
The city is currently conducting a survey of 1,500 home owners to determine if the majority want to continue using the blue bags.
This is the first time the city has taken bids for the waste hauling contract since 1978, she said.
Veltri Bendekovic will make a recommendation to the City Commission which firm to pick in January. Unlike other cities in Broward which are run by a manager hired by the City Commission, Plantation’s mayor manages the day-to-day operations of the community.
December 30th, 2015 at 11:48 am
Who is conducting the survey?
Who is paying for it?
The surveys never seem to reflect the real sentiment of the residents that I know!!
December 30th, 2015 at 2:16 pm
Which residents are in the survey? The rich end, including the mayor, do not use blue bags!!!
December 30th, 2015 at 3:28 pm
Whomever came up with the whole “no blue bags” media campaign really kicked Plantation into gear to open up the trash business
December 30th, 2015 at 3:37 pm
Okay, I’ll say it. NO DECENT FIRM WANTS TO DO BUSINESS IN SOUTH FLORIDA BECAUSE THE ELECTED OFFICIALS BY AND LARGE ARE STUPID SLEAZY CROOKS WHO GET BRIBES DISGUISED AS CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS OR GIVE EACH OTHER “BUSINESS” FOR FOR THEIR LAW FIRMS in the form of bullshit “LOBBYING” which is how clowns like the GELLERS live off of!
WHAT DOESNT ANYONE GET??????
December 30th, 2015 at 4:38 pm
This is not good. Why must we now pay for pick up if we don’t use it. Bags, you only pay for what you use
FROM BUDDY:
We could carry that philosophy too far. What about not paying for the EMS because you never called them? There is one reason that no city but Plantation uses the bags — environmental concerns and animals breaking open the bags. Plus, containers will take large items that will not fit in the bags or rip them open, like boards with nails, broken bottles, etc.
Interestingly enough, two large areas of the city including Plantation Acres use containers because of these considerations.
December 30th, 2015 at 4:48 pm
What was the name of the Broward County Commissioner that was involved in the county garbage oversight and policies?
FROM BUDDY:
The county’s “queen” of garbage for many years — not my name for her, but other commissioners — was Ilene Lieberman, who was the strongest voice on the Resource Recovery Board. That board no longer exists and Lieberman has left office.
December 30th, 2015 at 5:34 pm
One of the reasons the city does not want the Toter/Can system is aesthetics. I have been told many times by City Staff that they don’t want the Toters/Cans left at curbside after garbage/recycle pickup. As this is a marginal point, I think between Code Enforcement and our PD, we could remedy lingering Toters/Cans after trash day with a reminder hanger that could be placed on a front door. Just this week my trash did not get picked up until 5:00 pm.
FROM BUDDY:
That may be true, but I’m told that two of the areas with the most expensive homes — Hawks Landing and Plantation Acres — have containers. I live in Plantation, it is 6 p.m. and the street is filled with blue bags right now.
December 30th, 2015 at 5:52 pm
Lets also think about this….
Residents must:
– Buy blue bags for trash
– Buy Clear bags for recycles
– Buy Clear bags for yard waste which can only be placed out on bulk pick up days. Unless you want to place it into blue bags. And no black bags allowed on bulk pick up days
– Drive through neighborhoods and you will see Waste Management pick up trash in non Plantation blue bags and recycles in plain ole clear bags or in a paper bag
– Pay a $7+ fee regardless whether you buy any bags, place out bulk pick up
So….where is the equity in this system?
December 30th, 2015 at 6:16 pm
From the city’s website:
“Sometime ago, the City Council and Mayor looked into ways to better serve the waste collection needs and requirements of our community. With that in mind, a “pay as you throw” or blue bag system for refuse collection was established. This system offers residents a true “user-fee” based collection program and, at the same time, enhances the aesthetics of the neighborhoods by doing away with unsightly garbage pails with various and sundry refuse containers being left at the curb before and after garbage collection. It was decided that the western areas of the City would best be served by utilizing 96-gallon roll-out carts for their collection needs twice weekly at a prescribed monthly billing rate.”
Along with Plantation Acres and Hawks Landing, I believe Melaluca Isles also has the Toters….this area is single family residential community south of Broward Blvd and just west of Flamingo Road
Found this 2015 survey on their website:
http://www.plantation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2015-WM-Survey.pdf
December 30th, 2015 at 7:08 pm
Thank you, Mayor! I have responded to the survey and look forward to having a choice! The blue and clear bags are a huge hassle, hard to lift when full and messy! I have used the carts while living in Weston and they work extremely well! Please support their use and do away with this bag nonsense!
December 30th, 2015 at 7:30 pm
hard to believe that Plantation residents took this laying down for 37 years.
pathetic.
December 30th, 2015 at 9:25 pm
Lieberman is as dirty as they come. Nobody put in bids because they know the game is rigged.
December 30th, 2015 at 9:26 pm
Garbage is Ron Bergeron’s middle name.
December 31st, 2015 at 8:25 am
To little to late….
WM took out their biggest competition this week by purchasing SWS. Plantation probably costs their taxpayers millions by waiting until SWS was out of the picture.
January 4th, 2016 at 9:57 pm
Most of the folks I know that are able, take their trash to their work dumpsters to avoid the blue bag fee. Many other people that live near city parks walk across the street and dump their white trash bags into the city’s trash barrels. I can say this from experience as a former, retired city staffer.
January 5th, 2016 at 6:49 pm
No more of this blue bag nonsense! You cannot leave trash bags out overnight due to raccoons and other pests.
Let us have the same ‘amenities’ as Hawks’ Landings: plastic carts/toters or whatever you’d like to call them.
January 6th, 2016 at 6:58 am
At a minimum, the city should be encouraging recycling. By mandating the use of small clear bags does not encourage that. The use of small bins or roller totes will do that.
As someone who extensively recycles, I would encourage that. One will be amazed how little waste they produce once you recycle, bring back Styrofoam to be recycled, etc.
January 6th, 2016 at 8:57 am
I think it is silly that I have to buy kitchen trash bags to put in my clear 40 gallon trash can bags I keep outside to take that and put in a blue bag every week. I have trash other than kitchen trash, so the new smaller bags are not helpful. The entire process is inefficient and not green what so ever. We should follow the rest of Broward County and have a trash bin, a recycle bin and a yard waste bin. The real question is, who makes the blue bags?
January 6th, 2016 at 4:45 pm
From the 05/13/2015 Council Meeting where they discussed hiring a consultant to assist staff in the preparation of a request for competitive Proposals (RFCP) for exclusive franchise for solid waste collection services as of
October 1, 2016:
“This lucrative, exclusive franchise agreement is for services for over 19,000 blue bag
homes, 2,400 toter cart homes, 14,700 multifamily units and hundreds of commercial
accounts within the City.”
Now the math….
Plantation Carts = $ 23.92 per month
Plantation Bags:
$ 13.85 for residential per month
$12.62/cu.yd for multi family per month
$16.43/cu.yd for commercial per month
Plantation Avg price/home $ 14.95
Yearly:
Residential Blue Bags = $3,157,800
Residential Multifamily = $2,261,168
Toters = $688,896
Yearly Total = $9,919,560
TRASH IS BIG BUISNESS
January 6th, 2016 at 5:02 pm
By the way, this survey:
http://www.plantation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2015-WM-Survey.pdf
If you look at the Respondents (400 total out of 90,000 residents), it includes areas outside of Plantation such as Broadview Park (15), and Floral Heights which are in Unincorporated Broward County and the second highest number of respondents (26) came from a Toter area, Hawks Landing, which I believe has a premier service where they will wheel the cart back onto your property (I have not confirmed this though). Yet only 3 responses from Plantation Acres which has toters. Just asking how this is a scientific sampling of Plantation when only there are only 400 respondents and some are not even from our city?
FROM BUDDY:
I was part of the Sun-Sentinel’s local political surveys for years when the paper paid for legitimate polls consisting of calling likely voters. I became quite familiar with surveys.
Surveys that are done on the Internet like this have questionable validity. To do a real survey the city would have to hire a polling firm which would call only Plantation home and business owners.
January 9th, 2016 at 9:02 am
This Wednesday, 01/13/2016, the City Council will be selecting between Waste Management and Waste Pro. The consultants report states that Waste Pro is the better choice. It also says that according to their survey over 60% of Plantation wants the blue bag system. Just not buying this.
FROM BUDDY:
Regardless of the type of collection, Waste Pro was the better choice of the staff (I’m amazed!) and they recommend that negotiations begin with that firm. This is a big change!
January 15th, 2016 at 6:24 am
And the results of the council meeting were…….
– Council rejected the bids
– They extended the current current contract with Waste Management
– Tasked city staff to do another RSFP because only 2 companies bid (Waste Pro which was the recommended bidder & Waste Management)
– Councilman Levy recommended that neighborhoods get to choose if they want carts or blue bags which was opposed by most of the council
– A person in the audience who objected to the way the agenda items were being voted on and discussed was pretty much threatened with arrest by the City Attorney