By Ray Gronberg

gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM -- All four of the companies vying for the right to sort and resell the city's recycled goods appear interested in submitting new offers in response to the City Council's wish for a no-cost, no-risk deal.

Solid Waste Management Director Donald Long said he's drafting a formal letter to the companies, but has already heard from them by phone that they're willing to discuss the council's terms.

Long attributed that to the ongoing recovery of prices for recycled materials, and to the fact Durham has significant tonnage of goods to offer.

"The fact of the matter is we have the most recycling tonnage in this area that is not under contract with a recycling processor," he said. "We're a big fish, not just in this area, but in the state of North Carolina."

The companies -- FCR Recycling, Sonoco Recycling, Tidewater Fibre and Waste Management -- all submitted proposals earlier this summer that called for the city to share some of the costs and risks of the recycling market.

Those deals would have yielded revenue for the city when companies are willing to pay a premium for recycled paper, plastic, metals and other materials.

But they also could have cost the city money should materials prices tank -- like they did last year as the recession hit.

Mayor Bill Bell and other City Council members agreed earlier this month that they don't want to gamble on the markets. That means giving up on possible revenue, but it also means the city would take no risk, and the council isn't interested in paying one of the companies to take Durham's goods.

With prices recovering from last year's crash, the competing companies so far seem willing to play ball.

"Right now, the market is such that if any of them was willing to do [take the city's goods without charging the city a fee], they'd be making money," Long said. "It's not as if they're jumping on a wagon to the poorhouse."

The city has gotten a third-party prod in favor of picking Tidewater. It came on Aug. 18 from Matt Todd, a Durham resident and state official who wrote Long and City Manager Tom Bonfield to say the city should select the firm if Tidewater commits to upgrading its sorting plant here.

Todd works for the N.C. Recycling Business Assistance Center, a non-regulatory arm of the N.C. Department of Environmental and Natural Resources that tries to encourage business start-ups and expansions in the recycling trade.

Long said Todd's message was unofficial and "wasn't him representing DENR." Todd couldn't be reached for comment.

Todd was skeptical that companies would bid on the city's terms, for fear of setting a precedent for other customers. He also noted that Tidewater's existing sorting facilities are outdated, and that it would be "a good business decision" to use the contract to prod the firm to upgrade, even if the city has to assume some downside risk.

Meanwhile, Long said his department is still experiencing some growing pains from its takeover of recycling collections from Tidewater.

Residents have proven eager -- more eager than officials had expected -- to participate in the every-other-week rollout service.

Before the switch from weekly collections using much-smaller bins, about 55 percent of the households scheduled to receive service on any given day would actually take goods to the curb.

Now, about 89 percent are doing so, Long said.

For comparison, about 91 or 92 percent of households actually take garbage to the curb on the day they're scheduled to do so.

Officials designed collection routes assuming that only 65 to 70 percent of the household due for recycling pickups on any given day would participate, he added.

The difference has forced the department to adapt, and contributed to some of the missed pickups and other problems that have occurred. "We're learning as we go, and we're making changes as things pop up," Long said.