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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFull RFP - Solid Waste Collection 1 RFP City of Renton, Washington Request for Proposals for Solid Waste Services RFP Posting Date: June 18, 2025 Proposals Due: September 4, 2025 The City of Renton (City) is requesting proposals from qualified firms for residential and commercial garbage, recyclables, and compostables collection and for the processing and marketing of collected recyclables and compostables. The contract term will be ten years, with the opportunity for one two-year extension. The City’s current service contract ends on March 31, 2027. The City is looking for a new contract and the City presently does not plan on exercising contract extensions to March 31, 2029. The City seeks to continue most existing solid waste collection system components under one contract along with service enhancements, including updates to contract language and standards as described in Section 3 and in Attachment C Draft Base Contract. The City also seeks proposed costs for several alternatives to the draft base contract. Request for Proposal (RFP) C ontents 1 RFP SCHEDULE AND COORDINATOR .......................................................................................... 2 2 BACKGROUND AND CURRENT SERVICES .................................................................................... 2 3 RFP PRIORITIES AND REQUESTED SERVICES ............................................................................... 3 4 PROPOSER INSTRUCTIONS ........................................................................................................ 6 5 PROPOSAL CONTENT ............................................................................................................... 11 6 CITY REVIEW AND EVALUATION ................................................................................................ 17 7 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ...................................................................................................... 19 ATTACHMENTS A. Proposal Non-Price Forms B. Proposal Price Form C. Draft Base Contract D. Current Services Data E. Responses to Industry Review Comments 2 RFP 1 RFP SCHEDULE AND COORDINATOR The City of Renton has set the following RFP schedule for the receipt and review of the proposals. The City reserves the right to modify this schedule if deemed necessary. Release Final RFP 6/18/2025 First Round Proposer Questions 7/9/2025 Second Round Proposer Questions 7/29/2025 Proposals Due 9/4/2025 City Initial Selection October 2025 Finalize Contract November 2025 Recommend to City Council December 2025 Execute Contract February 2026 Start of Collection Services 4/1/2027 The final RFP, related documents, and updates will be posted on the City’s website at rentonwa.gov/bids. All communication regarding this RFP must be through the RFP Coordinator listed below: Name: Meara Heubach Email: mheubach@rentonwa.gov As described in Section 4.3 Process Integrity, any communications related to this RFP or subsequent evaluation and negotiations with any other City staff, representatives, or elected officials shall not be binding and may be grounds for proposer disqualification. 2 BACKGROUND AND CURRENT SERVICES The City’s current contract provides garbage, recyclables, and compostables services to all residents and commercial customers. Commercial recyclables and compostables services are also provided by open market vendors outside of the contract. The City’s current population is approximately 107,000. The City’s current contracted hauler has provided services in Renton since 2017. Single-family customers receive every-other-week garbage and recyclables service and weekly compostables service. There are approximately 25,000 single-family households. Approximately 700 of these households receive ‘premium’ weekly garbage service for an additional fee. The cost of the recyclables and compostables services are embedded in single-family garbage service prices. Renton residents currently use green garbage carts, blue recycle carts, and grey compostables carts. Single-family customers currently receive one free bulky item pickup per year and can also recycle additional special items at the curb, such as small appliances and batteries, at no additional cost. Multifamily and commercial properties are serviced with a variety of collection frequencies from carts, detachable containers, or drop-boxes. The current contract provides for unlimited multifamily and commercial recycling services embedded in garbage service prices. Green garbage carts, grey metal garbage containers, blue recycling containers, and grey compostables carts are available to multifamily 3 RFP and commercial customers. Cart-based multifamily and commercial customers can currently receive embedded 13-gallon compostables carts. All multifamily and commercial customers may subscribe to 32- /35- or 64-gallon compostables cart service for a fee. Customers also currently contract with private recyclers or composters for services. Fee-based bulky waste collection is provided for multifamily and commercial sites but not special item curb recycling pickup. During normal operations, the City’s contracted hauler transfers approximately 60% of garbage loads to King County’s Renton Transfer Station and approximately 40% to the Bow Lake Transfer Station. The contractor performs or arranges for the processing and marketing of all recyclables and compostables. The contracted hauler provides all customer service functions for solid waste customers and serves as the billing agent on behalf of the City, invoicing all customers, receiving payments, and depositing all retail rate revenue in the City’s account. The City adopts retail solid waste rates by city council ordinance, usually on a two-year cycle. The City pays the contracted hauler monthly wholesale contractor rates for services provided. The City also pays the relevant County disposal costs and hazardous waste bills and pays relevant utility fees and taxes. The contracted hauler is responsible for producing and distributing public information about collection schedules, recyclables, and compostables, and customer opportunities as well as conducting other customer outreach and assistance. The City administers the collection contract; coordinates with state, regional, and local agencies; develops and administers solid waste policy; and coordinates waste reduction and recycling outreach within the service area. Residential and commercial garbage services are mandatory. Current service levels and participation rates, as reported by the current contractor, are provided in Attachment D Current Service Data. Customer counts have not been independently confirmed by the City and proposers are encouraged to perform their own investigation to confirm customer data as desired. Current contractor rates are provided in Attachment B Proposal Price Form. Additional information about current services may be obtained from the City website (Sustainability and Solid Waste | City of Renton). The current waste collection contract will be posted on the City’s website at rentonwa.gov/bids. 3 RFP PRIORITIES AND REQUESTED SERVICES 3.1 RFP Priorities The City of Renton has identified the following priorities: 1. Maintain robust and reliable services 2. Minimize customer rate increases 3. Provide convenient customer interactions 4. Support the strategies of the City’s draft Zero Waste Plan (dated January 2025 and posted at rentonwa.gov/bids) 5. Foster a strong city and contractor partnership 6. Conduct a fair, open, transparent, and competitive RFP process The RFP structure and terms, sample base contract, proposed alternatives, and evaluation process are intended to support these priorities. 4 RFP 3.2 Requested Base Services This section provides a general overview and summary of the City of Renton’s requested services. However, proposers should carefully review Attachment C Draft Base Contract for the detailed and specific service and contract requirements. The services provided in the awarded contract will begin April 1, 2027, with the selected contractor performing garbage, recyclables, and compostables collection for all sectors, providing processing and marketing of collected recyclables and compostables, and ensuring garbage disposal exclusively through the King County Disposal System. The City seeks to continue most of Renton’s existing solid waste service levels and conditions under the new contract, while updating elements in the public-private partnership consistent with RFP priorities listed above. Single-family residents will continue to receive every-other-week collection of garbage and recyclables and weekly collection of compostables. ‘Premium’ customers will continue to receive weekly garbage services for an additional fee. Recyclables and compostables services include up to two carts as requested. The City has chosen to discontinue curb collection of compact fluorescent light bulbs and tubes, batteries, and used cooking oil. Multifamily and commercial customers will continue to receive the full range of cart, detachable container, and drop-box garbage services along with unlimited recycling service and cart-based compostables collection, with additional cart sizes available for weekly or twice a week collection. The City will transfer ownership of existing in-service carts, detachable containers, and non-compacted drop-boxes from the current contractor to the future contractor. The RFP base terms provide for maintaining single-family cart colors with green garbage carts, grey compostables carts, and blue recycling carts. However, the new contractor will replace all commercial and multifamily garbage carts with new black garbage carts and replace all commercial and multifamily compostables carts with new green carts. Wildlife-resistant carts will be made available to single-family customers for a monthly fee. The contractor will provide a fleet of new collection vehicles fueled with renewable natural gas, renewable diesel, or other state-qualified low carbon fuels, as well as fully electric support vehicles. Under the new contract, the City will return to an in-house billing system where the City bills customers for all permanent and temporary services, collects all customer payments, and responds to customer billing questions and concerns. The City will pay disposal costs and related taxes and fees for all garbage collection services. The contractor will pay for all processing costs for all recyclables and compostables collected and pay the processing or disposal costs for collected bulky waste. The City will pay the contractor monthly for collection and other related services based on the agreed unit rates. For residential services, under the new contract, the City will pay the contractor separate fees for recyclables and compostables services, plus additional service fees for recyclables and compostables carts beyond the default service level of a single cart per single-family customer. These costs will no longer be embedded in residential garbage service payments. This modification will allow the City to more 5 RFP accurately pay state refuse taxes. However, the City expects to continue embedding these recyclables and compostables service costs within combined solid waste retail rates based on subscribed garbage container sizes, as adopted by the City and charged to residential customers. For commercial services, the City will continue to pay the contractor separately for compostables services while recyclables will continue to be embedded in commercial garbage service payments. The contractor will perform customer service functions related to service delivery will and continue to produce and distribute public information, with the City’s review and input, to support successful participation in all services. The contractor will continue to assist new customers and multifamily and commercial sites with effective recycling and composting. 3.3 Requested Alternative Services The City of Renton is seeking pricing on three service alternatives. Proposals will provide price proposals for these on the Attachment B Price Proposal Form. Proposers will also provide context for their alternative price responses as part of Section F in their proposal. Omitting pricing from one or more alternatives may result in a determination by the City that a proposer’s proposal is non-responsive. A. Swapping Garbage and Compostables Carts – Under this Alternative A, the contractor will purchase and provide new black garbage carts and new green compostables carts to all single- family customers and deliver these between April 1 and July 31, 2027, while removing and repurposing the current in-service carts. Green carts currently being used as garbage carts shall be repurposed as compostables carts to the extent practicable. The following table describes cart deployment under the status quo, the RFP Base, and RFP Alternative A. Cart Colors in Status Quo, RFP Base, and RFP Alternative A Single-family Quantity in Service Status Quo RFP Base RFP Alternative A Garbage carts Appx. 25,000 per service Green Green Black Compost carts Grey Grey Green Multifamily & Commercial Quantity in Service Status Quo RFP Base RFP Alternative A Garbage carts Appx. 500 Green Black Same as base Compost carts Appx. 100 Grey Green For Alternative A, the City is seeking two pricing options to cover this potential purchase and swap out of all single-family garbage and compostables carts: first, a pricing option where the City increases the monthly contractor payments per household for garbage and compostables services over the duration of the contract; and second, a pricing option where the City provides a one-time 2027 payment to cover the entire procurement and swap out costs. Both pricing options should incorporate contractor savings to single-family service costs to reflect reduced cart replacement costs over the duration of the contract relative to the base services. The City is also open to other pricing arrangements that would effectively finance this potential transition. Provide any variation in cart specifications or recycled content from the base proposal. Describe the planned approach and timing to swap single-family carts and to repurpose or recycle removed carts. B. Electric Collection Trucks – Under this Alternative B, the contractor will purchase and deploy four (4) fully battery-powered, electric collection vehicles on routes by January 1, 2029. The remaining 6 RFP collection fleet will be new low-carbon trucks and electric support vehicles, as required in the draft base contract. Please provide the annual rate increase (+) or decrease (-) in the initial gross revenue requirement associated with this alternative. Describe the proposed trucks, projected deployment timing, and any interim fleet coverage for routes to eventually be serviced by the electric trucks. Collection vehicles used in the interim must be model year 2015 or newer and comply with all terms and conditions in section 6.1 of the draft base contract, except the requirement to be model year 2025 or newer. C. Weekly Recyclables Collection – The RFP Base continues the current every-other-week single- family recyclables service. For this Alternative C, the contractor would provide weekly recyclables collection for all single-family customers. Please provide the monthly rate increase per single- family recycling service associated with the alternative. 3.4 Proposer Variations The City of Renton also encourages proposers to submit and describe potential variations from the described base and alternate terms, and from the attached draft base contract, that the proposer anticipates could reduce costs or improve services for the City’s customers. The City seeks variations to capture innovation, risk mitigation, partnership, and approaches to allow the City and the contactor to more effectively achieve the RFP priorities described in Section 3.1. Innovations could suggest alternative approaches to new cart financing, electric fleet deployment, customer opportunities or service features, offering On-Call Recyclables collection services to Multifamily Residences, contamination reduction, elimination of specific service fees, an alternative inflation adjustment, or any other revisions that could result in a significant benefit to the City and its customers. The City will consider proposed variations during the proposal evaluation process and may wish to discuss desirable variations during interviews and include desired variations in the final contract, as negotiated. 4 PROPOSER INSTRUCTIONS 4.1 RFP Documents, Notifications, and Questions By the due date of the first round of proposer questions, proposers shall notify the RFP Coordinator by email of their continued interest in the RFP process. The notification should include the name, email address, and phone number of the person to whom the RFP communications, addenda, and related information should be directed. The City will provide addenda and other subsequent information to proposers that have notified the RFP Coordinator, as described above. Proposers should carefully examine all proposal documents, as provided by the RFP Coordinator, for compliance with RFP requirements. In making the proposal documents available, the City does so only to obtain proposals and does not confer a license or grant for any other use of these documents. Proposers will inform the City in writing of any questions, comments, conflicts, objections, errors, omissions, or seek clarifications on any document or portion of the proposal documents, including but not limited to, the draft base contract requirements. Proposers shall present any objection to RFP or draft base contract terms and conditions that the proposer cannot meet and/or that the proposer believes could be preferential to a particular party. 7 RFP RFP questions must be received by the time and date listed in the Section 1 of the RFP schedule to be considered. The City will provide a summary of written responses to all questions received to each interested proposers that provided notice of interest as described above. Proposers shall note receipt of all addenda on the completed Form 4 of Attachment A (Certification of Proposal and Declaration of Understanding) submitted with its proposal. The City reserves the right to modify the RFP, the draft base contract, or any other proposal documents before the receipt of proposals with notice to parties that submitted a written notice of interest as described above. 4.2 Process Integrity Requirements Each proposer is individually and solely responsible for ensuring compliance with the process integrity requirements, as described in this section. This responsibility extends to potential proposer’s employees, agents, consultants, lobbyists, or other parties or individuals engaged to develop or support a proponent’s proposal or proposed services. Proposers shall comply as follows: • All solid waste collection service-related communications with the City of Renton shall be only through the City’s RFP Coordinator identified in Section 1. Proposers or their agents shall not contact other City staff, appointed or elected officials, consultants retained by the City, or other agents of the City regarding solid waste collection services from the time the industry review version of the draft is made available to prospective proposers until the time a finalized contract and/or the City recommendation of selected proposer is made public in the city council agenda packet. Operations staff for the current contractor may continue to coordinate with the City contract administration staff on day-to-day operations but can only communicate regarding this RFP with the RFP Coordinator. • When seeking information from the City to prepare a response, proposers shall rely only on written information, RFP materials, and addenda provided by the City’s RFP Coordinator. Any reliance on other information and publications by the City may result in a non-responsive proposal due to inaccurate or incomplete information. The City shall not be liable or responsible for inaccuracies or incomplete information outside the RFP and proposal documents, including any attachments. • Any information and materials to be utilized by the City during the proposal evaluation and selection process shall be included as part of the original proposal. The only exception would be for information or materials submitted in response to a specific request for proposal clarification from the City’s RFP Coordinator. A proposer may be disqualified and, if so, shall forfeit its proposal deposit bond if the City, in its sole discretion, determines the proposer has failed to comply with the specific Process Integrity Requirements outlined in this document, has undermined the City’s intention of conducting a fair and transparent competitive procurement process, or has otherwise substantially diminished the City’s ability to award a contract promptly and free of contention. The City reserves the sole right to disqualify any proposer at any point in the process before contract award for failure to comply with the process integrity requirements. The City also reserves the right to disqualify any proposer, at any time, for fraud, any material misrepresentation, illegal conduct, or any act or omission that the City determines reflects poorly on the City of Renton. 8 RFP 4.3 Investigation of Local Conditions Each proposer shall conduct any investigation of the City’s service area, projected customer counts, types and quantities of customer-owned equipment, markets, processing facilities, and other conditions deemed necessary by the proposer to submit a responsive proposal. Each proposer shall become familiar with local conditions that may affect costs, implementation, progress, performance, or furnishing of services or equipment required under the draft base contract. Proposers shall, at their own expense, conduct any additional research regarding information and data that may affect costs, implementation, progress, performance, or furnishing of the services or equipment required under the draft base contract and that the proposer deems necessary to factor into its proposal. Each proposer shall consider federal, state, and local laws, statutes, ordinances, regulations, and other applicable laws, executive orders, and/or guidelines that may affect costs, implementation, progress, performance, or furnishing of the services or equipment required under the draft base contract, including, but not limited to, applicable regulations concerning the following: industry wage rates; nondiscrimination in the employment of labor; minority and women-owned business enterprise requirements; protection of public and employee safety and health; environmental protection; protection of natural resources; fire protection; emergency preparedness; solid waste handling facility standards and permits; and other permits, taxes, and fees. Proposers are expected to be knowledgeable about the service area; understand the City’s terrain, streets, and alleys; and know the locations of carts, detachable containers, and other receptacles used for garbage, recyclables, and compostables collection. Proposers are also expected to confirm and assure to the City’s satisfaction that the proposer’s equipment and personnel can make the collections and provide the services required in the draft base contract. 4.4 Representations The submission of a proposal shall constitute an incontrovertible representation by the proposer that the proposer has complied with every requirement of these instructions to proposers, that without exception, the proposal is premised on the proposer being able and willing to perform and furnish the services, labor, and equipment required by the proposal documents by such means, methods, techniques, sequences, or procedures as are required by the proposal documents, and that the proposal documents are sufficient in scope and detail to indicate and convey an understanding of all terms and conditions for performance and furnishing of the services and equipment required under the draft base contract. 4.5 Public Disclosure Notice All materials provided by the proposer are subject to State of Washington disclosure laws, per RCW 42.56 Public Records Act (PRA) and considered public records. To the full extent the City determines necessary to comply with the Washington State Public Records Act (PRA), the City will make a disclosure decision based upon RCW 42.56 and may choose to provide third-party notice to a proposer of records requested in a public records act request. In the event the proposer believes said records need to be protected from disclosure, it may, at the proposer’s own expense, seek judicial protection and a court order preventing or limiting disclosure within the time period set by the City in the third-party notice. 9 RFP The City assumes no obligation on behalf of the proposer. The City will not accept the liability of determining what the proposer considers proprietary or not. Marking the entire proposal as confidential or proprietary, and therefore trying to exempt it from disclosure, will not be accepted or honored and may result in disclosure of the entire proposal or disqualification of the proposal solely at the discretion of the City. 4.6 Proposal Preparation The City of Renton must receive proposals no later than 2:00 p.m. on September 4, 2025. Electronic versions of all proposals must be emailed to the City’s RFP Coordinator at mheubach@rentonwa.gov. Proposers must also submit, in person, six (6) physical copies of the proposal to the front desk staff in the lobby of Renton City Hall (1055 S. Grady Way, Renton, WA 98057). Responses received after 2:00 p.m. on September 4, 2025 will be returned unopened. By submitting a proposal, respondents acknowledge their satisfaction as to the size, scope, and location of the work to be performed. The electronically submitted proposal package shall include the proposal deposit bond and all other required proposal documents, including completed and signed proposal forms. The Certification of Proposal and Declaration of Understanding (Form 4 of Attachment A) shall be executed by the proposer or the proposer’s duly authorized officer or agent. Proposals shall include responses to all content guidance from RFP Section 5 Proposal Content and all completed proposal forms. All blank spaces in the proposal forms shall be completed to be considered, and no changes shall be made to any of the proposal forms other than those necessary to accommodate electronic signatures. At its sole discretion, the City may deem any proposal non-responsive that contains omissions, erasures, alterations, or additions of any kind, or prices uncalled for, or unbalanced, or any proposal that in any manner fails to conform to the conditions of this RFP. The City may, at its sole discretion, waive irregularities in any or all proposals. The City does not require financial statements to be provided as part of proposal submittals; however, the City reserves the right to request supplemental materials from proposers to demonstrate to the City’s satisfaction that any proposer is fully capable of undertaking this contract and its associated services. By submitting a proposal, the proposer is committing to commencing collection services by April 1, 2027, and complying with each term of the contract and the corresponding portion of the proposer’s submitted proposal. The proposer shall complete and sign its proposal in ink or electronically in the blank space provided. All names shall be typed or printed below the signature, along with evidence that the proposer is a duly organized and validly existing business, licensed to do business in the City of Renton and Washington State. If not licensed, then the proposer shall provide a sworn statement that it will become licensed if selected as the successful proposer before executing the contract. The legal name of the proposer submitting the proposal shall be typed or printed in the space provided at the bottom of each page of the proposal forms. Proposals by corporations shall be executed in the corporate name by the president or a vice president (or other corporate officer accompanied by evidence 10 RFP of authority to sign). Proposals by partnerships shall be executed in the partnership name and signed by a partner whose title shall appear under the signature. If the signature is by an agent other than an officer of a corporation or a member of a partnership, a notarized power of attorney or board resolution shall be on file with the City before submitting the proposal or shall be submitted with the proposal; otherwise, the proposal may be deemed non-responsive. 4.7 Non-Collusion By submitting a proposal, the proposer and each person signing on behalf of the proposer certifies—and in the case of a joint proposal, each party thereto certifies as to its own organization, under penalty of perjury—that to the best of his/her knowledge and belief, the following are true: (1) The prices of this proposal have been arrived at independently, without collusion, consultation, communication, or agreement with any other proposer or competitor, for the purposes of restricting competition or as to any matter relating to price. (2) Unless otherwise required by law, the prices quoted in this proposal have not been knowingly disclosed by the proposer and will not be disclosed by the proposer directly or indirectly to any other proposer or competitor before proposals are opened. (3) No attempt has been made or will be made by the proposer to induce any other person, partnership, or corporation to submit or not to submit a proposal on any portion of the project work. If collusion is uncovered, the City maintains the right to reject all proposals from implicated parties. 4.8 Proposal Deposit Bond Each proposal shall be accompanied by a proposal deposit bond (PDB) made payable to the City of Renton of thirty thousand dollars ($30,000). A copy of the PDB form is provided in the proposal forms. The City shall retain the PDB from the selected proposer until that proposer has executed the solid waste contract with the City and furnished insurance and a performance and payment bond as required pursuant to the contract, whereupon the PDB shall be released. If the selected proposer fails to execute and deliver the contract as negotiated and fails to deliver required contract documents within one week after the contract is finalized and ready for execution, the City may withdraw its offer to contract with the selected proposer, and the PDB of that proposer may be forfeited. In that event, the PDB of the selected proposer shall be retained as liquidated damages by the City. By submittal of a proposal, the proposer agrees that this sum is a fair minimum estimate of the damages that the City will sustain if the selected proposer fails to execute the contract or furnish proof of insurance acceptable to the City. The City does not waive its rights to recover additional damages it incurs above the PDB amount. The PDB of other proposers may be retained by the City until after (1) the contract execution or (2) one hundred eighty (180) calendar days after the proposal due date, whichever is earlier, whereupon the PDB furnished by such proposers shall be released. 11 RFP 4.9 Proposal Costs The City shall not be responsible for any costs incurred by any proposer in preparing, submitting, or presenting its response to the RFP, interview process, or in accommodating any inquiries made during evaluation, or any expenses in connection with the finalization of the contract. 4.10 Modifying or Withdrawing Proposals Before the time and date designated for submitting final proposals, any proposal submitted may be modified or withdrawn by written notice to the City. The proposer shall notify the RFP Coordinator in writing and shall include the signature of the proposer. The City shall only consider notice of proposal modification or withdrawal if the City receives it before the proposal deadline. 5 PROPOSAL CONTENT The City seeks concise proposals that outline the equipment, facilities, staff, resources, and approaches that the proposer intends to use to provide services and confirm that the proposer has sufficient depth and experience. Proposers shall not attach unnecessary vendor information, letters of support, or other extraneous materials. Proposals shall follow the format, content, and order outlined as follows: A. Executive Summary Provide a brief proposal overview and highlight the key elements (maximum six [6] pages). B. Proposer Identification Provide information about the proposing entity via the proposal non-price forms in Attachment A. Provide the name of your entity; home office address; Washington business address; and the name, address, phone number, email address, and title of the person to be contacted concerning the proposal. If the proposer is a subsidiary, state the parent company name, home office address, telephone number, and parent company website address and describe the parent company’s relationship to the proposer. State whether the person signing the proposal has the authority to sign on behalf of the proposer. State also the names of companies that will share significant and substantive responsibilities with you, as joint venture partners or in another manner, in performing under the contract. Include documentation that the proposer is duly organized and a validly existing business in good standing and licensed to do business in Renton. If a proposer is not licensed to do business in Renton, then the proposer shall provide a sworn statement that it will secure a City of Renton business license if selected as the successful proposer before executing the contract. C. Proposed Operations C. 1 Operations Base Identify any proposed maintenance and support facility locations, structures, and zoning. C.2 Fleet Describe the type and quantities of all primary, support, and spare fleet vehicles intended to be used to provide contracted services. Individually identify vehicle chassis and body configurations to be used to provide single-family, commercial, multifamily, and drop-box collection services, including limited access sites. For each vehicle type, identify the number of compartments, the compartment capacity, total weight 12 RFP and volume capacity of the vehicle, loading characteristics, and fuel type. Clarify the state-certified low carbon fuels that will be used, expected fuel sources, and any related fuel source commitments. The City desires to support electric fleet transition over the duration of the contract. Describe your experience and how you would approach moving to an electric fleet, under both the base proposal and the relevant alternative proposal. C.3 Environmental Impacts Outline systems, innovations, and steps taken to reduce environmental impacts and greenhouse gas emissions from local operations, including emissions commitments and estimates for 2025 and 2030. Estimate greenhouse emissions impacts and benefits from proposed operations in the City, including collection services, commodity hauling and processing, and any other significant advancements. Highlight any other key corporate-wide or local commitments and initiatives made to support regional sustainability. C.4 Waste Containers Describe the containers and labels to be used for all waste types and customer types to meet the City’s requirements and specifications under the proposed draft base contract. Specify amount and type of recycled content used for production of the customer carts to be purchased. Clarify the initial process to clean, relabel, and replace any containers transferred from the current contract. Outline the process proposed to ensure all containers are successfully maintained and do not leak during storage or operations. C.5 Route Management Describe the route management system and how routes are initially developed and modified over time. Describe how the on-board computer systems manage route progress, route changes, service exceptions, and diversions from regular routes due to road maintenance, inclement weather, or other unforeseen needs to deviate from the planned route. Also, clarify how the on-board system communicates with dispatch and the call center’s account system to provide close-to-real-time updates for each customer during the collection day. C.7 Missed Pickup Response Describe any procedures for handling missed collections and how this approach will minimize repeat misses, including minimizing misses at off-week single-family garbage and other outlier service stops. Outline the approach to address customers who repeatedly report justified misses and a strategy to manage customers who repeatedly report unwarranted misses. D. Recycling and Composting Operations D.1 Contamination Reduction Describe your preferred contamination reduction plan by sector, including thresholds for container tagging and collecting versus container tagging and rejecting. Clarify content monitoring for any automated collection equipment that limits inspection during servicing. Clarify when and how relevant customers are contacted to address and monitor continuing problems, including any additional route monitoring or separate sampling. Describe service suspension and resumption thresholds and process. 13 RFP D.2 Recycling Facilities Fully describe the proposed recycling processing facility or facilities to be used, including location, hours of operation, daily processing capability, accepted recyclable commodities, tons of each commodity currently processed per day by commodity type, additional processing capacity committed to in the future by commodity type, and the amount of that capacity that is needed to process the recyclables collected under the draft base contract. Specifically, address how commingled materials are currently processed and the average inbound contamination, outbound residual, and bale rejection experienced by your entity or contracted processor. D.3 Composting Facilities Fully describe the proposed compostables processing facility or facilities, including location, hours of operation, annual processing capability, annual permitted capacity, tons of material currently processed per day, processing capacity already committed to other jurisdictions, and the amount of that capacity needed to process the compostables collected under the draft base contract. If a proposed composting facility is planned but does not currently exist, please identify a fully permitted and operational facility that could serve as the primary facility if the proposed facility is unavailable at the start of the contract. D.4 Commodity Markets Describe the expected destinations and markets for all recycling and compostables commodities, including any commitments for domestic processing of commodity streams. Describe an approach and any commitments made to avoid challenging or lower value downstream markets such as fuels, low quality compost, exported plastics, etc. Confirm the level of reporting and transparency that will be provided to the City on the final destinations of sorted commodities. Describe any compost discounts or giveaways proposed for City customers. E. Local Management and Experience E.1 Operational Experience Describe the experience of your team (both individuals and the corporate, partnership, or entity team) in providing the services like those requested in this RFP. Provide examples of similar services and contracts performed, including the scale of annual revenues, tonnages, and the number of customers. Describe any significant challenges encountered in establishing service, collecting solid waste, or collecting, processing, and/or marketing recyclables or compostables, along with a description of how such significant problems were resolved to the satisfaction of customers. Provide any experience with and resolutions for contract compliance, including disputes, performance fees, responsiveness, disaster recovery, labor relations, and city collaboration. Provide references for similar projects described, with direct operational management responsibility over the proposer’s contract and complete knowledge of the proposer’s detailed performance provided under that contract. E.2 Key Personnel and Resumes Provide the names, entity affiliation, telephone numbers, and email addresses of key individuals integrally involved in the proposal. Provide an organizational chart or other means of explaining the interrelationships between the team members. 14 RFP Supply the names and resumes of the principal officers, partners, or other officials of each entity who would be involved in performing substantive responsibilities required under a contract with the City and provide the names and resumes of the individuals who would be directly responsible for implementing the contract. At a minimum, include the general manager, operations manager(s), financial officer, outreach manager, customer service manager(s), the person who would be managing the contract with the City (such as government relations manager), and other personnel with whom the City would have regular contact with during the administration of the contract. Describe the ownership, managerial, and/or fiduciary role of each participating company. E.3 Prior Litigation and Violations List any entity, partner, holding company, or subsidiary involved in this proposal (including subcontractors directly providing services to customers), or any corporate officer that has been involved within the past five years in any litigation or arbitration as related to any action or claim: • arising from the procurement or performance of a municipal solid waste collection contract; • arising from the performance of a processing or marketing contract; • arising from or connected with violation of state or federal antitrust laws; • arising from or connected with allegations of corrupt practices, or • arising from operating permits and other operating requirements, including local, state, and federal rules or regulations. The above disclosure should be limited to Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia) operations and personnel. Summarize the general circumstances of each action or claim to the extent authorized by the non-disclosure provisions (if any). E.4 Subcontractors List all items of work or elements of the services to be performed by subcontractors and the subcontractors’ names, qualifications, and resumes. Identify any subcontractor used for customer-facing operations such as container delivery, maintenance, or spill clean up. E.5 Staff Support Outline your local programs to support staff and your approach to ensure and foster diversity, equity, and inclusion for employees. F. Customer & Billing Support F.1 Customer Support Options Outline your overall approach to customer service and how the various elements of customer service (call center, web-based, outdial messaging, and mobile app) work together to provide excellent customer service and enhance two-way communications between the contractor and customer. Describe how you will efficiently route customer billing questions to City staff. Clarify the customer options through your website. Describe opportunities for customers to interface with customer service representatives and manage their accounts and service requests online through website and mobile app elements. Clarify how the request and notification platforms will function for Renton customers, since they will not have billing accounts in the contractor system. Describe how service 15 RFP requests made via all platforms are integrated without duplicative response. Describe any recent innovations in real-time customer service and response. Describe your privacy and cyber security protections. F.2 Customer Contact Staffing & Performance Provide the location and staffing levels at the call center facility that will support customers in the Renton service area. Discuss how staffing levels are established and modified to ensure timely customer service and how new and existing staff are trained. Describe how customer service performance is measured, including your targets and metrics and current performance results. When call center staff handle calls from more than one city or service area, describe the procedures and aids used by those staff to address calls from different service areas without delay in responses or confusion to customers. Clarify how long it currently takes to respond to local customer calls, inquiries, and requests by line-of- business, how staffing levels are monitored and adapted to minimize response times, how the resolution of each service call is performed promptly, and how this is tracked and routinely reported as part of internal performance evaluation as well as required periodic reports. F.3 City Coordination & Billing Support Provide your approach to effectively partnering with City staff. Describe the software to be used to maintain customer accounts and service data. Clarify your staff and system solutions to provide appropriate data files and account access to support effective City billing and efficient City resolution of bill payer inquiries. Describe capacity and features to provide effective reporting and detailed City invoicing to support City tracking of programs and services. F.4 Transition Operations & Experience Outline a proposed transition and implementation plan to ensure an efficient and successful initial contract implementation. Identify the major phases, timeline, and challenges in the transition and implementation plan, including procurement and delivery of vehicles, containers, and other equipment, contingency plans, and other considerations. Identify the individuals involved in the transition and their qualifications that would support a successful transition. For proposers not currently providing collection services to the City, describe how you would work with the City’s incumbent contractor to ensure a smooth transfer of information and container exchanges promptly before the services start date. Provide your prior experiences implementing similar collection operations and customer services, including successful transitions from incumbent contractors and ensuring accurate servicing information. F. 5 Transition and Service Outreach Describe and provide examples of customer outreach for the initial service transition and ongoing service promotion for all sectors. Describe how the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion will be or are integrated into outreach programs and the tools and strategies to be used to reach all Renton communities. 16 RFP G. Recycling and Composting Support G.1 Special Item Recycling City of Renton customers appreciate convenient opportunities to recycle common items that are not accepted in commingled recycling containers. Describe any additional items proposed to be collected in the recycling carts, or curbside outside of the recycling containers, or at temporary or permanent free drop-off sites. Confirm if an appointment or request would be required, or any limitations, for curbside set- out or drop-off. Describe special item recycling opportunities proposed for multifamily residents, including proposed customer storage, notification procedures, and collection frequency. G. 2 Diversion Performance Describe your planned approach to increase multifamily and commercial recycling and composting diversion levels while minimizing contamination. Detail the communications, outreach, assistance, site visits, audits, and the technological or operational innovations you propose to increase recycling and composting diversion for commercial and multifamily sites, including compliance with new state requirements such as the Organics Management Law. Provide examples of where your approaches have been effective and how effectiveness is measured. Provide informational materials developed and used by your staff, including annual guidelines provided to residential customers. G. 3 Outreach Staffing Clarify the staffing, roles, and other resources committed to diversion outreach and assistance for the City of Renton. Identify functions or programs performed consistent with the draft base contract outreach terms versus additional or enhanced outreach or incentive programs beyond the requirements. G. 4 Zero Waste Plan Support Summarize key elements of your proposal that would advance relevant components of the City’s draft Zero Waste Plan (dated January 2025 and posted on rentonwa.gov/bids). H. Proposal Forms Fully complete and attach all proposal forms from Attachment A. I. Proposed Prices and Variations I.1 Base Prices Fully complete the Attachment B Price Proposal Form. Enter proposed values for all green shaded cells with proposed monthly or per event City payments to the contractor for all service levels. Note that the City’s retail rate model includes or may include incentive retail rates for any or all collection sectors, but the City only pays the contractor the underlying wholesale contract rates in Attachment B. The City will continue to manage its retail rates via its solid waste utility. The proposed prices shall be provided in 2026 dollars. Under the contract, the agreed 2026 payments— including all proposed or pre-set fees listed in Attachment B—will be adjusted for 2027 and all subsequent years based on a Consumer Price Index (CPI-W) adjustment described in the draft base contract. This CPI adjustment is intended to reduce the proposer’s risk of inflation between the time rates are proposed and 17 RFP the start of services. As allowed in Section 3.4, proposers may submit an alternative inflation index for the City’s consideration. Proposed service prices shall include all capital and labor; all collection and operating costs; recyclables and compostables processing costs and commodity revenues; administration and management costs; and profit and incidental taxes (e.g., sales tax on capital equipment and containers, tire and fuel taxes, B&O/excise tax). The City shall pay all disposal costs from the garbage collection services and pay all state and local utility taxes. These costs shall be excluded from the Proposal rates. For bulky waste collections, the contractor shall pay all the disposal or processing costs as needed. Proposals shall include separate prices for single-family compostables and recyclables services without embedding these costs in the proposed garbage service payments. For multifamily and commercial services, the proposal shall include separate compostables service prices, while recyclables service costs are embedded in proposed garbage service payments. For all temporary services and permanent drop-box services, the City shall pay separate contractor payments for container delivery and rental. For all other services, the contractor shall incorporate container provision and delivery in the garbage service prices, unless otherwise specified. For some miscellaneous or ancillary services, the City has provided pre-set prices—shaded in blue on Attachment B—for all proposals. Proposers shall use these listed prices in their revenue calculations and shall not provide different proposed rates for those services. For routine ancillary services provided more often than weekly, proposers shall propose the monthly price for weekly provision and then the City will calculate payments for more frequent service based on that weekly service price. Current service counts are provided on the price sheet only for City price evaluation. Proposers are responsible for developing their own service estimates and forecasts, reflecting any variations that may occur now or at the start of the contract and thereafter. I.2 Alternative Prices Fully complete all alternative price adjustments in the Attachment B Price Proposal Form. Provide any relevant context and commitments for these adjustments and services. I.3 Proposer Variations As described in Section 3.4, the City encourages proposer variations with potential variance from the described base and alternate terms, and from the attached draft base contract, that the proposer anticipates could reduce costs or improve services for Renton customers. For any proposed variation, describe the reason for the recommended revision, propose specific changes to draft contract text, and clarify the impact(s) to your proposed prices. 6 CITY REVIEW AND EVALUATION The City of Renton intends to provide a fair, open, transparent, and competitive RFP process and proposal evaluation. Proposals shall be evaluated with a quantitative review of proposed prices and a qualitative review of non-price elements, including proposal content, reference checks, interviews, and/or site visits. The City’s proposal evaluation committee shall review all proposals under the steps and criteria described 18 RFP below with the highest combined qualitative and price scoring used to identify a recommended selected proposer. As part of the RFP evaluation process, the City reserves the right to contact staff from other jurisdictions, visit proposer’s facilities, meet any of the proposer’s staff and personnel, waive irregularities in any or all proposals, retain independent consultants for assistance in evaluating proposals and provide proposal materials to those consultants, and seek other investigations, inquiries, reviews, or clarifications which would allow the City to make informed decisions. 6.1 Proposal Responsive and Proposer Qualifications (pass/fail) A proposal will be deemed responsive if all requested information is provided in the format requested, all questions have been answered, and all forms have been completed, including the signed proposal deposit bond forms. The City may contact any proposers meeting these initial criteria for clarification. The City may disqualify any proposer not meeting these initial requirements and also has the right to waive irregularities in the proposals. Proposers shall submit all information related to their ability to successfully perform the work described in the RFP. Proposers who do not clearly outline their proposed services, equipment, and approaches, or clearly demonstrate their ability to perform the requested services may be disqualified. 6.2 Proposals & Proposers Review (45 points) The City’s proposer evaluation committee will evaluate all proposals and proposers, as responsive to RFP Priorities in Section 3.1 and to all elements of Section 5, including: • Operations, environmental impacts, and proposed and prior performance – 20 points • Customer support, diversion approach, and proposed and prior performance – 15 points • Responsive alternative and proposer variation pricing – 10 points The committee will consider proposal content along with references, potential site visits, interviews with proposer staff, and any other relevant information obtained by the City. Proposers must demonstrate knowledge, skills, innovation, creativity, experience, and capacity to design, deliver, manage, and provide all aspects of customer service, staffing, operations, maintenance, outreach and education, marketing, procurement, financial management, contingency planning, sustainability performance, and other aspects associated with the provision of services described in the RFP and draft base contract. 6.3 Base Price Review (55 points) The City will compare aggregate costs for all base price proposals, based on the unit prices submitted by proposers and estimated customer counts provided by the City in the Attachment B Price Proposal Form. The aggregate prices shall be scored according to the following formula: Subject Proposal Rate Score = (Lowest Proposal Rate Total/Subject Proposal Total) x 55 points 19 RFP 6.4 Finalist Selection The City shall evaluate the total combined proposal scores, with price and non-price scores, in comparison to other proposals or on a stand-alone basis. Contract finalization shall proceed with the selected proposer. If contract finalization with the selected proposer is not successfully concluded promptly, which is to be determined by the City in its sole discretion, contract finalization may proceed with another proposer. The resulting finalized contract shall be submitted to the City’s elected officials for review, approval, and execution. The selected proposer is expected to be prepared to execute the draft base contract in Attachment C, as revised by the RFP addenda, without further revisions or negotiations. However, upon mutual agreement, the City and the selected proposer may elect to discuss further and revise elements of the draft contract (including but not limited to contract language and rates) if the City deems such revisions to be in the interest of City customers. The City reserves the right to waive any informalities or irregularities; disregard any non-conforming, non- responsive, irregular, or conditional proposals; and seek proposal clarifications as needed. The City reserves the right to reject any proposals if the City believes that it would not be in the best interest of the public to award, whether because a proposal is non-responsive, a proposer is not found to be responsible or fails to meet any other pertinent standard or criterion established by the City, or it is otherwise not in the best interest of the public in the City’s sole discretion. The City reserves the right to decline to award a contract as a result of this RFP process, withdraw the RFP and reject any or all proposals, require changes in the draft base contract that the City deems necessary, issue a subsequent RFP based on refinements of concepts proposed to this RFP, discontinue negotiations with the selected proposer or any proposer, commence discussions with any other responsive proposer, or make arrangements for the services in any way that best serves the public’s interest. 6.5 Title VI Statement The City of Renton, in accordance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 78 Stat. 252, 42 U.S.C. 2000d to 2000d-4 and Title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, Department of Transportation, subtitle A, Office of the Secretary, Part 21, nondiscrimination in federally assisted programs of the Department of Transportation issued pursuant to such Act, hereby notifies all proposers that it will affirmatively ensure that in any contract entered into pursuant to this advertisement, disadvantaged business enterprises as defined at 49 CFR Part 26 will be afforded full opportunity to submit qualifications in response to this invitation and will not be discriminated against on the grounds of race, color, national origin, or sex in consideration for an award. Visit Accessibility | City of Renton for more information. 7 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 7.1 ERF Retiree Return-to-Work To comply with WAC 415-02-325 (10), the City of Renton is required to identify and report to the Washington State Department of Retirement Systems (DRS) all individuals who are working for or plan to work for the selected proposer in any capacity providing services under this contract to the City of Renton and who retired from a DRS-covered employer using the DRS 2008 Early Retirement Factors (ERF). These individuals are called “2008 ERF Retirees” and are at least 55 but younger than 65. The City is also required 20 RFP to identify and report to the state all individuals that are owners of the selected proposer and are 2008 ERF Retirees. Prior to contract acceptance, the selected proposer shall submit a City of Renton DRS Verification Form identifying any such 2008 ERF Retirees or certifying that none are working or will work on the contract and none are owners of the selected proposer. 7.2 Governing Law and Venue In the event of litigation, the proposal documents, specifications, and related matters shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Washington. The venue shall be with the appropriate state or federal court located in King County. 7.3 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Information The City of Renton, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, will make every reasonable effort to provide equal opportunity to submit qualifications in response to this request. Visit Accessibility | City of Renton for more information. This material can be made available in an alternate format by contacting the City’s Risk Manager, Krista Kolaz, at kkolaz@rentonwa.gov or 425-430-7669.