Tri-Town Municipal Solid Waste and Recycling Services

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
RFP NO. 2025-26-2
TRI-TOWN MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE AND RECYCLING SERVICES
Proposals Due Monday, April 20, 2026 at 2:30 PM
The three Towns are:
Town of Newington Town of Rocky Hill Town of Wethersfield
Town Manager's Office Town Manager's Office Town Manager's Office
200 Garfield Street 761 Old Main Street 505 Silas Deane Highway
Newington, CT 06111 Rocky Hill, CT 06067 Wethersfield, CT 06109
Phone (860) 665-8510 (860) 258-2700 (860) 721-2800
RFP No. 2025-26-2

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
The Towns of Newington, Rocky Hill, and Wethersfield are soliciting sealed proposals to retain
a qualified firm to provide one or more permitted facilities within thirty-five (35) miles of the
geographic boundaries of the three Towns to provide the following services:
1. Receive, process, dispose of, and recycle all wastes and recyclables managed by the
three Towns;
2. Should the Towns implement a Food Waste / Organics Collection program, an option
to receive, process, dispose of and recycle all organic and food waste managed by the
three Towns, as applicable; and
3. Should the Towns implement a Curbside Yard Waste program, an option to receive,
process, and recycle any materials managed by said curbside yard waste of the
Towns.
Companies can provide pricing for items 1, 2, and 3; or any individual item or
combination thereof. Multiple companies may be selected if that is in the Towns' best
interest.
All proposals shall be submitted in accordance with the Towns' specifications and on the form
supplied by the Towns. Proposal response form and specifications are available in the
Newington Town Manager's Office at 200 Garfield Street, Newington, CT 06111 and on line at
www.newingtonct.gov, in the Doing Business, Bid Opportunities section. Any addenda shall be
posted at this location.
Proposals shall be received until 2:30 p.m. on Monday, April 20, 2026 at the Newington Town
Manager's Office, 200 Garfield Street, Newington, CT 06111, when they will be opened
publicly.
An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employers. Minority/Women's Business Enterprises
are encouraged to apply. Each Town reserves the right to select or not to select a respondent as
the result of this Request for Proposals.
Jonathan Altshul Ray Carpentino Fred Presley
Newington Town Manager Rocky Hill Town Manager Wethersfield Town Manager
Post: 3/31/2026
Questions: 4/8/2026
Responses: 4/13/2026
Due: 4/20/2026
Interviews: week of 4/20/2026 *can be waived by selection committee
Selection: by 5/1/2026
RFP No. 2025-26-2

TRI-TOWN MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE AND RECYCLING SERVICES
RFP NO. 2025-26-2
SPECIFICATIONS
1. GENERAL INFORMATION
The three Towns of Newington, Rocky Hill, and Wethersfield, Connecticut (the Towns) are
issuing a joint Request for Proposals in order to retain a qualified company (the Contractor) to
provide one or more permitted facilities within thirty-five (35) miles of the geographic
boundaries of the Towns to receive, process, dispose of and recycle all solid waste, recyclables,
food scraps, organics and yard waste managed by the Towns.
The purpose of this Request for Proposals is to select a Contractor that has demonstrated
experience in providing such disposal, processing and recycling services in the Connecticut
municipal market and who possesses an understanding of the standards and requirements typical
for such services. All services shall be provided in a cost-effective, efficient, regulatory-
compliant and reliable manner under the terms of a mid-to-long-term Agreement between the
Towns and the Contractor.
The Towns will also consider proposals that offer a single acceptance facility for both wastes and
recyclables or an acceptance facility for both waste and recyclables separately. Proposals shall
demonstrate a viable contingency plan with a backup facility or facilities available to accept
wastes and recyclables in the event the proposed facility or facilities are unavailable.
Respondents may offer proposals for waste disposal only, recyclables only, organic waste
disposal, yard waste disposal, or any combination thereof. The Towns will make its selection in
accordance with sections 5 and 6 below; and the Towns may award contract to multiple vendors.
2. SCOPE OF SERVICES
The Contractor shall be expected to provide all facilities, equipment, labor and services required
to meet the deliverables of this RFP, as follows:
2.1 Solid Waste and Recycling Disposal
The Contractor shall be required to accept wastes for disposal and recyclables for processing and
marketing at one or multiple acceptance facilities within or proximate (within two miles) to the
geographic boundaries of the Towns. The Contractor may offer a single acceptance facility for
both wastes and recyclables or an acceptance facility for both waste and recyclables separately.
Services shall include:
* Disposal of solid waste at a licensed landfill, transfer station or waste-to-energy facility.
* Scheduled and on-call collection services.
Accepted recyclables may include:
* Mixed paper
RFP No. 2025-26-2

* Cardboard
* Glass bottles and jars
* Aluminum and steel cans
* Plastic containers
* Other materials accepted by the regional recycling program
The contractor shall comply with all applicable federal, state, and local waste management
regulations. The Contractor shall furnish sufficient facilities, equipment, labor, financial
capability, and experience to begin accepting materials from the Towns by July 1, 2026.
The Contractor shall provide or act as a recycling market outlet for the acceptable recyclables
during the term of the Agreement with the Towns regardless of market fluctuations. The
Contractor shall not store or warehouse materials in violation of health and safety standards and
shall conform to all requirements of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental
Protection and other state and/or federal agencies.
The contractor shall comply with all applicable federal, state, and local waste management
regulations. The Contractor shall furnish sufficient facilities, equipment, labor, financial
capability, and experience to begin accepting materials from the Towns by July 1, 2026.
2.3 Organics / Food Waste Disposal
The contractor shall provide disposal or processing services for food waste and other organic
materials.
Services may include:
* Receive source-separated organic and food waste.
* Transportation to a permitted composting or organics processing facility.
* Processing or disposal consistent with state organics and food scrap diversion
requirements.
The contractor shall comply with all applicable federal, state, and local waste management
regulations. The Contractor shall furnish sufficient facilities, equipment, labor, financial
capability, and experience to begin accepting materials from the Towns by July 1, 2026.
2.5 Yard Waste Disposal
Should the Towns implement Curbside Yard Waste management programs, the contractor shall
provide yard waste disposal services including disposal of brush, leaves, yard debris, and
Christmas trees collected by the Towns.
Services may include:
* Receive yard waste material
* Transportation to permitted composting or recycling facilities.
* Processing or disposal consistent with state and local regulations
RFP No. 2025-26-2

Contractors shall specify:
* Processing capacity.
* Final destination of yard waste materials.
The contractor shall comply with all applicable federal, state, and local waste management
regulations. The Contractor shall furnish sufficient facilities, equipment, labor, financial
capability, and experience to begin accepting materials from the Towns by July 1, 2026.
2.6 Additional Considerations
a) The Contractor is encouraged to offer its capacity to coordinate additional diversion
initiatives for other materials in the waste stream not specified in this RFP, including (but
not limited to) scrap metal, leaves, yard waste, other organics and compostable items,
tires, large bulky items, construction and renovation debris, white goods, electronic
waste, batteries, fluorescent lamps, and any other material specified by the Towns.
b) The Towns shall cause their agents, including (but not limited to) crews collecting and
delivering wastes and recyclables to perform their services in a responsible and efficient
manner.
c) It is the intent of the Towns to deliver wastes and recyclables on the same day on which
they are collected from the curbside, if feasible. Deliveries from the Towns' transfer
stations may be made less frequently. Minimally, acceptance facilities for waste shall be
available to receive materials Mondays through Saturdays, from 7:00 a.m. until 4:00
p.m., and acceptance facilities for recyclables shall be available to receive materials
Mondays through Saturdays from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with holiday observances for
New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day,
Christmas Day, and any other days the Towns may choose to designate in writing.
d) The Contractor shall give the Towns priority consideration in weighing and offloading
operations. The maximum total waiting/tipping time from arrival at an acceptance
facility to departure from the acceptance facility shall not exceed one-half hour (30
minutes) per truck.
e) The Contractor shall provide monthly, quarterly, and annual reports to each Town,
documenting the total quantities of wastes and recyclables accepted, associated charges
for wastes, and recycling rebates.
f) The Contractor shall provide monthly consolidated invoices to each Town. Invoices shall
contain both the disposal fee as a charge and the recyclable material revenues as a credit,
with the net monthly fee owed by the Town.
g) The Towns will not guarantee any minimum or maximum quantity of wastes or
recyclables. The Towns' historical municipal storage waste amounts, where applicable,
are provided elsewhere in this Request for Proposals.
h) The Towns shall require the Contractor to have reliable disposal and recycle processing,
and the Contractor shall demonstrate appropriate operating contingencies and
redundancies.
RFP No. 2025-26-2

ACCEPTANCE FACILITIES
1. Acceptance facilities may be transfer stations, conversion facilities, landfills, incinerators,
or any other properly permitted and environmentally compliant facility. Where
applicable, the facility:
a) Must be capable of accepting all processable and non-processable municipal solid
waste collected and managed by the Towns;
b) Must be capable of receiving single stream (and occasionally dual-stream and/or
source separated) recyclables for eventual processing and marketing, with at least the
same range of materials accepted at the currently utilized disposal facility as outlined
elsewhere in this Request for Proposals;
c) Must be capable of receiving organics and food waste materials;
d) Must be capable of receiving mixed yard waste, including but not limited to branches,
brush, grass clippings, leaves, Christmas trees, and similar organic debris;
e) Shall maintain safe and efficient queuing, weighing, uploading, screening, and
vehicle departure procedures to assure efficient use of the facility by the Towns'
employees and agents;
f) Shall have sufficient capacity for unloading, storage, transfer, or other processing of
materials so as not to impair delivery of materials from the Towns;
g) Must have calibrated truck scales to record the weight of all delivered loads and must
have a process to accurately record the weight and time of all deliveries so that
material quantities can be accurately weighed and accounted for in reporting;
h) Shall have acceptance facilities with emergency, health and safety policies,
procedures and practices for employees and users of the facility, and shall inform the
Towns of ongoing compliance and any violations, and subsequent remediation of
such violations, if any.
2. The Towns or their designated representatives have the right to make periodic inspections
of any acceptance facility or any downstream facility location listed by the Company as
proposed under this Request for Proposals.
3. The Contractor shall provide the Towns with ten (10) calendar days' notice of any
diversion to a facility other than the facility identified in their submittal to this Request
for Proposals. The Contractor shall pay each of the Towns for the incremental
transportation costs, if any, associated with each ton of diverted waste.
AUTHORIZED HAULERS
a) The Towns shall designate one or more authorized hauler per Town to deliver applicable
materials to the disposal facility.
b) The Towns shall certify in writing a list of authorized haulers to the Contractor prior to
the commencement of each contract year.
RFP No. 2025-26-2

QUALITY OF SOLID WASTE
a) The Towns shall make every effort to ensure that solid waste delivered to the facility is
acceptable solid waste that is generated within the Towns' boundaries.
b) "Acceptable solid waste" means mixed household solid waste and commercial solid
waste collected within each of the Towns that is segregated and permitted by law to be
delivered to the disposal facility by the Towns or an authorized hauler. "Acceptable solid
waste" does not include unacceptable waste or recyclable materials.
c) "Unacceptable waste" includes hazardous waste as defined in any Federal, State or local
law. "Unacceptable waste" includes, but is not limited to, agricultural waste, explosive
materials, corrosive materials, pathological waste, biological waste, human or animal
remains, radioactive materials, ashes, foundry sand, mining waste, sewage sludge,
cesspool and other human waste, motor vehicles, major motor vehicle parts, agricultural
and farm machinery and equipment, large motors, solid blocks of rubber or plastic, rolls
of carpet or fencing over twelve inches (12") in diameter, steel or nylon rope, chains,
cables or slings, logs larger than those acceptable under the Contractor's normal
operating procedures, street sweepings, tree stumps, tires, white goods, liquid waste and
gaseous waste, construction materials and demolition debris, special nuclear or by-
product materials, any item of waste that is either smoldering or on fire, wastes in
quantities and concentrations which require special handling, and any material prohibited
by any Federal, State or local governmental agency or other regulatory authority, or by
any facility permit or approval.
d) The Towns shall make every effort to ensure that municipal and authorized haulers do not
deliver non-processable waste to the disposal facility.
DISPOSAL FEES
a) The Towns shall pay to the Contractor the fee identified in the Contractor's proposal
form for material.
b) The Contractor shall pay to each of the Towns, or credit against the amount due from
each of the Towns to the Contractor, the recycling rebate identified in the Contractor's
proposal for each ton of recyclables delivered to the disposal facility. The recycling
rebate shall be paid the month following the month during which the recyclables were
delivered to the disposal facility.
c) The Towns reserve the right to review the Contractor's books and records relating to the
service contracted with each Contractor.
QUALITY OF RECYCLABLES
a) The Towns shall make every effort to ensure that recyclables delivered to the facility are
acceptable recyclables that are generated within the Towns' boundaries.
b) Acceptable recyclable materials include: cardboard and boxboard; food and beverage
cartons; bottles and jars; junk mail, magazines, newspaper inserts, newsprint, and office
paper; pizza boxes; aerosol containers; aluminum foil; cans and bottles; foil containers;
metal lids from cans and bottles; plastic bottles (with or without caps attached); plastic
containers, tubs, and lids; and single-use plastic cups (no lids or straws).
RFP No. 2025-26-2

QUALITY OF FOOD SCRAPS AND ORGANICS
a) The Towns shall make every effort to ensure that food scraps and organics delivered to
the facility are acceptable recyclables that are generated within the Towns' boundaries.
b) Acceptable source-separated organic material include: organic material, including, but
not limited to, food scraps, food processing residue and soiled or unrecyclable paper that
has been separated at the point or source of generation from nonorganic material.
QUALITY OF YARD WASTE
a) The Towns shall make every effort to ensure that recyclables delivered to the facility are
acceptable recyclables that are generated within the Towns' boundaries.
b) Acceptable yard waste material includes but is not limited to: grass clippings, leaves,
weeds, brush and shrub trimmings, tree branches, and other organic materials.
3. SUBMISSION OF PROPOSAL
Complete proposal packets shall be received no later than 2:30 p.m. on April 20, 2026 in the
Newington Town Manager's Office, 200 Garfield Street, Newington, CT 06111.
All proposals shall be opened publicly and recorded as received. There will be no public reading
of the proposals. Proposals received later than the time and date specified will not be considered.
All proposals shall remain firm and can not be withdrawn for a period of 60 days after the
proposal receipt date and time.
Proposals shall include the following:
a) Completed Proposal Submission forms for each service which the entity is responding.
b) Disposal and Recyclables Processing Services
a. General Information
i. For the proposed and backup disposal and recycling facility or facilities
1. Location and address
2. Type of facility
3. Facility owner
4. Permitted capacity
5. Current quantity of accepted waste and recyclables
6. Existing commitments
ii. Description of operations
1. Physical description of acceptance facility
2. Facility operations plan
3. Types of wastes allowed and any restrictions
4. Types of recyclables recovered and any restrictions
RFP No. 2025-26-2

5. Method of handling special wastes, hazardous wastes, and any
penalties
6. Process of inspection and evaluation of contamination level
(recyclables)
7. Contamination thresholds
8. Procedures for screening and rejecting incoming loads of wastes
iii. Environmental and operating compliance
1. Operating permits
2. Environmental controls
3. Compliance with applicable law
iv. Fee proposal
1. Fee proposal with unit pricing attached
4. QUESTIONS AND ADDENDA
1. Questions regarding this Request for Proposals shall be directed to Lauren Rhines,
Assistant Town Manager for the Town of Newington, to lrhines@newingtonct.gov.
Questions must be received no later than 4:00 p.m. on April 8, 2026. All information
given by the Towns, except what is included in this Request for Proposals and any
addenda, shall be informal and shall not be binding upon the Towns, nor shall it furnish a
basis for legal action by any Proposer or prospective proposer against the Towns.
Answers to questions, if appropriate, shall be addressed in an addendum which shall be
issued by the Towns and posted on the Town of Newington's website,
www.newingtonct.gov, in the Doing Business, Bid Opportunities section.
2. This Request for Proposals and any addenda shall be posted on the Town of Newington's
website, www.newingtonct.gov, in the Doing Business, Bid Opportunities section.
3. It shall be the responsibility of all interested firms to check the Town of Newington
website for the presence and content of addenda prior to submitting a response to this
Request for Proposals.
4. No addenda shall be issued by the Towns within forty-eight (48) hours of the proposal
response opening, unless it is to postpone or cancel the due date.
5. The Towns reserve the right to ask for additional information beyond what is contained in
the respondent's proposal.
6. Proposals shall be evaluated in accordance with the Evaluation Criteria and Selection
Process sections of this Request for Proposals.
5. EVALUATION CRITERIA
The following factors shall be considered by the Towns when evaluating proposals:
RFP No. 2025-26-2

1. Overall quality, thoroughness, and responsiveness to the Towns' requirements as
contained in this Request for Proposals.
2. The qualifications and experience of the firm, the designated account representative, and
other key personnel to be assigned.
3. Successful performance of similar work on other accounts.
4. Transparency for where and how materials shall be handled, including transportation
methods to be used, destination location for materials, and description of sustainable
materials management methods (sorting, processing, materials recovery, etc.).
5. Competitiveness of fee schedule.
Each Evaluation Criteria factor may not have the same weight.
6. SELECTION PROCESS
1. An Evaluation Committee shall evaluate all proposals received for completeness and the
respondent's ability to meet requirements as stated in this Request for Proposals.
Interviews may also be conducted depending on the number of responses. (The Towns
reserve the right to request certain additional information).
2. Following review and evaluation of proposals, a short list of respondents shall be
developed.
3. A respondent will then be selected by the Towns from the short list.
4. This Request for Proposals does not commit the Towns to award a contract or to pay any
costs incurred in the preparation of a proposal in response to this Request for Proposals.
All submittals in response to this Request for Proposals shall become the property of the
Towns. The Towns reserve the right to accept or reject any or all proposals received as a
result of this Request for Proposals, to negotiate with the selected respondents, to extend
the Agreement resulting from this Request for Proposals for an additional period, or to
cancel in part or in its entirety the Request for Proposals, if it is in the Towns' best
interests to do so.
7. GENERAL PROVISIONS
i) The Towns reserve the right to reject any or all proposals in whole or in part and to
waive any informalities or technical defects in any proposal. Non-selection of any
proposal will mean that another acceptable proposal was deemed to be more
advantageous to the Towns or that no proposal was accepted.
ii) The Towns are all Equal Opportunity Employers, ands require an affirmative action
policy or all of their Contractors and vendors as a condition of doing business with
the Town, as per Federal Order 11246. By submitting a proposal, all vendors and
Contractors agree to this condition of doing business with each of the Towns, and
should the Town choose to audit their compliance, the vendor agrees to cooperate
fully.
RFP No. 2025-26-2