Approve agreement with Clean Earth Environmental Services, Inc., for the household hazardous waste, load check, and small quantity generator hazardous waste management collection and disposal services for the term of December 16, 2022 through December 31, 2024. (No general fund impact) (Echiburu/Juhler)

Approve agreement with Clean Earth Environmental Services, Inc. for the household hazardous waste, load check, and small quantity generator hazardous waste management collection and disposal services for the term of December 16, 2022 through December 31, 2024.  

Health and Safety Code §25218 requires that counties and cities provide for the collection of Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) and Small Quantity Generator (SQG) small business waste as a community service to ensure proper handling and disposal of these materials. The County provides collection events at the Yolo County Central Landfill to satisfy this requirement.  The collection events have proven to be very successful in preventing HHW from being disposed of in the landfill, sewer systems, or illegally dumped along the roadside. Additionally, this agreement will provide service to senior and disabled residents of Yolo County, allowing for at-home pickup at no charge to the resident, and a load check program for items found illegally disposed of in the landfill. 

The current agreement with the contractor that provides these services was not set to expire until June 30, 2023. However, due to rising costs of fuel, labor and supplies, our current contractor requested a 26% cost increase which was outside of the Division's authority to approve.  Once the 26% increase was denied, the current contractor issued a Termination Notice to the County which is set to expire on December 15, 2022.  In response to this, the Division put a Request for Proposals (RFP) out in October 2022 to determine if the market justified this cost increase and to see if further negotiations could be achieved in exchange for such a large increase.  The RFP resulted in two bids, one from Clean Earth (our current service provider) and one from Clean Harbors.   Through the RFP process the Division found Clean Earth to be the most qualified and least costly contractor to provide these services.  In addition, the Division was able to negotiate enhanced services which include the expansion of collection hours to all Yolo County residents starting in January 2023.  Currently, the HHW operation is only open on Fridays and Saturdays.  Under the new agreement, the HHW facility will be open to the public every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 7:30am - 3:30pm.  With convenient access to low-cost or free disposal, household and business hazardous waste products are sometimes disposed of illegally.  Clean-up of illegally dumped waste is costly and involves multiple County Divisions and a third-party contractor in some cases to clean up.  Having the ability to add a third day to our HHW operation, we believe can only help in further reducing illegal disposal of hazardous waste. 

This contract provides for the proper management, transportation, storage, and disposal of all Yolo County hazardous waste collected from households, and small businesses; including batteries, fluorescent bulbs, paint, antifreeze, pesticides, poisons, mercury, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs), sharps, as well as other household and small business chemicals.   Additionally, the Yolo County HHW program is an important part of the County's Source Reduction and Recycling Element (SRRE), as required under the Household Hazardous Waste Element (HHWE) of Assembly Bill 939.

The County has sponsored HHW collection events at the Landfill since 1993 on behalf of all its jurisdictions.   These events provide a safe and convenient disposal option for Yolo County residents, farms, and small businesses.  The HHW program is funded through the Yolo County Central Landfill's tipping fees and are provided as a free service to all Yolo County residents. In FY 21-22 we served 13,585 households through the main facility, 204 small businesses and 187 seniors and/or disabled residents through at-home pickup of hazardous waste.

As the HHW program continues to grow, County staff strive to implement as many Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programs as possible to supplement the cost of the program by requiring the manufacturers who produce these hazardous products to assist in paying for disposal costs.  The attached agreement includes the implementation of MED-Project for sharps disposal reimbursement through the newly approved EPR Assembly Bill 212.  The attached agreement also insures that our hazardous waste is being disposed of using the highest standards in the waste management hierarchy by diverting a minimum of 15% of the waste coming into our facility to the onsite Reuse program.

Due to all the reasons listed above, staff recommends that the Board of Supervisors approve the agreement with Clean Earth Environmental Solutions, Inc. to continue to receive the superior level of service we have known to expect from this contractor, while expanding upon our services for our constituents.

The hazardous waste collection programs are permitted through the State Department of Toxic Substances Control, Yolo County Environmental Health, and the Yolo Solano Air Quality Management District.  In addition to these agencies, we work with the California Highway Patrol, Yolo County Sheriff, and the Davis Fire Department to ensure adequate emergency response is available to support our operations should such an incident arise.  

The Purchasing Division approved the RFP and County Counsel has approved the agreement as to form.   Jurisdictions within the county that will be serviced under this agreement include the cities of Davis, West Sacramento, Winters, and Woodland as well as the unincorporated County.  Each of these jurisdictions support this agreement by advertising and educating city residents and small businesses about Yolo County's HHW programs.

Request for Proposals (RFP) Service Requested: Proposal for Household, Load Check and Small Quantity Business Generator Hazardous Waste Management Collection and Disposal Services through BidSync (Periscope).