Chester staff recommends awarding residential refuse contract to Waste Industries of Delaware

City of Chester staff on Monday recommended awarding the city's residential refuse and recycling contract to Waste Industries of Delaware following review of two bids for bid number 2025-009.

The recommendation came at the City of Chester's deliberative meeting on Sept. 8, 2025, where staff said the current five-year refuse contract expires Dec. 31 and a retooled, unit-price RFP drew two bids: the incumbent and Waste Industries of Delaware, a subsidiary of Casella Waste Management.

Staff said the Waste Industries unit price proposal was $13.93 per residential unit compared with $29.70 per unit from the other bidder. "We estimate that there are 9,900 residential units that we're going to pick refuse up from," said Mister Moore, staff member. "The unit price that was offered by Waste Industries was $13.93 per unit, versus $29.70." Moore said annualized contract values equate to roughly $1.65 million for the lower bid versus about $3.5 million for the higher bid, a spread of nearly $2 million.

Moore described a review committee process that met with the lowest apparent bidder to determine whether it was the lowest responsible bidder and said, "After our due diligence, we highly recommend that the contract be awarded to, to Waste Industries of Delaware as the lowest responsible bidder." He said the city would use the roughly three months after council approval to orient the hauler to local streets and alleys.

City staff said the RFP format was changed from a lump-sum price to a unit-price contract and added several services compared with the prior procurement. The current contract was a five-year agreement that expires at the end of the year, staff said.

Council members asked procedural questions during the meeting but no formal vote on the refuse contract was recorded in the meeting transcript. The agenda reading listed "Resolution 99: Authorize awarding a contract for residential refuse and recycling, Bid number 2025-009," and staff presented the recommendation for award.

Other agenda items discussed briefly included a separate resolution rejecting proposals for on-call electrical services and a resolution to advertise an RFP for on-call towing; staff said the electrical-services proposals contained additional costs that the city did not consider to be in its best financial interest. "I wouldn't characterize it as didn't find qualified bidders. I just after we reviewed those, there were some additional costs that were in that that we didn't think was in the best financial interest of the city," said the Chief of Staff.

If council approves the award, staff said they will proceed with the onboarding and route familiarization process before the contract begins.