YARD DEBRIS PROCESSING, HAULING and DIVERSION PROGRAM Scope of Service

The City of Atlanta (City) Department of Public Works, Department of Aviation, Department of Watershed Management, and Department of Parks and Recreation intend to select one or more vendors to complete the following services associated with yard debris processing and landfill diversion: volume reduction, debris processing, reuse and/or disposal, and the transportation of residential yard debris, parks and forestry debris and material.

The City of Atlanta, to comply with the Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Act of 1990 and its later amendments, instituted a Yard Debris Processing and Diversion Program in 1997. This program ensures that the City complies and prohibits the disposal of yard debris material at municipal solid waste landfills. This Program serves as a method of waste stream diversion that will enable the City to comply with the Act in two ways:

• It meets the City’s need to provide separate collection of yard debris for its residential population and will be able to consider expansion of services due to demographic and programmatic changes.

• It allows yard debris to be collected, processed, and repurposed as mulch, wood chips, compost, fuel, and other reuse applications. In doing so, the City assists the state in meeting the goal of reducing yard debris and vegetative waste by 25% -- the amount of municipal solid waste previously being received at solid waste disposal facilities.

An estimated 35,000-40,000 tons per year of yard debris will be generated by the City of Atlanta. Yard debris and trees will be collected from approximately 96,000 single family residences, multi-family residences and City owned parks. The Vendor will consider increased participation in this program to accommodate potential commercial facilities (businesses, apartment buildings, etc.). Yard debris tonnage is estimated by historical tonnage data. The anticipated tonnage (39k) is strictly an estimate and will not be guaranteed to anyone or combination of sites. If the Vendor envisions one facility is to receive all the yard debris, it should be designed for an average tonnage capacity of 150 tons per day and a peak tonnage capacity of 200 tons per day. This range is subject to fluctuate due to inclement weather, seasonal and demographic variables. This quantity assumes a 300-day operating year for collections.

Purpose

The purpose of this solicitation is to identify (a) Vendor(s) that is (are) capable of processing organic vegetative material collected by the City from residences and municipal parks to produce quality reuse products such as compost, wood chips, mulch, and other marketable products. For the purposes of this solicitation, yard debris is defined as grass clippings, small brush, tree debris, hedge clippings, leaves, shrubs, trees, discarded Christmas trees, and nursery or greenhouse vegetative residuals. The processing facility, which is currently being provided by the City is located at 2175 James Jackson Parkway, Atlanta GA.

A. VOLUME REDUCTION- Provide yard debris volume reduction by chipping, shredding or grinding debris at the above-mentioned address.

(1) The City will provide the processing location, yard debris collections and transportation of approximately one hundred fifty (150) tons per day of unprocessed yard debris, some of which will be containerized in brown paper bags, feedstock to the site.

(2) Vendor will process the yard debris via shredding, chipping or grinding. A sprinkler or misting system must be used at the processing location to reduce dust. Separate hauling of whole trees is acceptable. The user agency will provide infrastructure and vendor will handle dust suppression equipment.

Air quality regulations, including those for dust, in Atlanta and the state of Georgia are primarily governed by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD), which implements and enforces both federal (Clean Air Act) and state regulations. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has strengthened the national air quality standards for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), reducing the allowable annual limit from 12 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m³) to 9 µg/m³. This standard is relevant to Atlanta as PM2.5 can be generated by various sources, including vehicle exhaust, industrial activities, and construction dust. While all of Georgia is currently in compliance with the previous PM2.5 standard, some areas, including Atlanta, may need to implement additional measures to comply with the new, stricter limit, according to Phys.org. The state of Georgia has a general visible emission limit for air contaminant sources. Generally, no person shall cause, let, suffer, permit, or allow emissions from any air contaminant source the opacity of which is equal to or greater than 40%. Georgia also adopts federal emission standards for hazardous air pollutants, including those associated with dust, to ensure consistency and compliance with federal regulations. All processed material must be loaded into transportation vehicles provided by the vendor and hauled to an approved destination, also designated by the vendor.

Vendor must provide the final depository business name, contact information, and a copy of any permits required to run the operation at the time of bid submission.

(3) Vendor must provide sufficient detailed information on minimum equipment required. It will be the responsibility of the vendor to ensure that the appropriate equipment counts and backup requirements are planned for ahead of time to ensure that all standards are met for service. Required equipment is as follows but is not limited to:

portable fuel tank processing equipment (grinder/shredder) track loaders excavator dust suppression sprinkler/mister

(4) All chipped/shredded/grinded unprocessed yard debris materials picked up/delivered to the site by the City must be processed and hauled off within 48 hours of receipt of that material at the processing facility.

B. DEBRIS PROCESSING/DISPOSAL

Processing The Vendor selected must provide sufficient labor, materials, and equipment to inspect and remove inorganic material (residue) from all chipped/shredded/grinded yard debris prior to processing. The Vendor selected must also provide sufficient labor, materials, and equipment to reduce the volume of delivered materials by chipping, grinding, or shredding, and then load all reduced yard debris into vehicles owned and operated by the vendor.

For this solicitation, inorganic material (residue) is any material which is not suitable for use in yard debris compost or reuse material, including but not limited to plastic, metal and glass.

All processed yard debris materials must be loaded into vendor’s transportation vehicles within 48 hours of processing. The final product from proposed processing method must be suitable for use in the yard debris composting facilities described in Options 1 and 2 of this solicitation.

Inorganic Material Residue Inorganic material termed as “Residue” (trash, plastic, etc.) removed from City yard debris by the vendor will be placed by the vendor into receptacles provided by the City.

The City shall be responsible for the transportation and disposal of the residue materials. Vendor needs to be able to complete the work in 72 hours. The user agency does not have preferred minimum receptacle specifications. The maximum weight allowable on site per day should be no more than 200 tons. Tonnage reviews will occur semiannually. Materials that need to be separated are put into rolloff containers – vendor would be responsible for entire hauling process including the provision of rolloff containers. Vendor would need to accurately gauge staffing to ensure that the needs of the department are met. Response time would be 72 hours after processing and hauling.

Legal Requirements The vendor must operate the facility such that their operations meet all Federal, State, and local laws, rules, regulations, permit requirements, and license conditions, including, but not limited to, those regarding noise, dust, air quality, water quality, stormwater, odor, worker safety, and any other applicable regulations, except to the extent that more stringent standards are imposed by this solicitation. All disposal facilities must abide by all rules and regulations set forth by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division and adhere to the Georgia Comprehensive Solid Waste

Management Act of 1990 in its entirety. Facilities must have valid Solid Waste Disposal and Processing permits issued by the state of Georgia. All disposal facilities must be permitted by their corresponding county that the facility is approved for commercial yard debris processing. Commercial driver’s licenses and all commercial transportation documentation, including Georgia DOT certification, for the operator and the vendor must be made available as well.

The City of Atlanta seeks proposals for a Yard Debris Processing and Diversion

Program that examines the following options:

Option 1 – PROCESSING, HANDLING & TRANSPORT TO NON-CITY LOCATION

The Vendor must operate a full-scale processing facility that facilitates the pushing, lifting and relocation of yard debris from one location to another. The Vendor must provide the necessary staffing allowances and equipment required to maintain a clear working face to allow for dumping. Hours of operation do include but are not limited to evenings, weekends and some holidays.

The Vendor must operate its own processing equipment, load their own transportation vehicles and haul processed yard debris material or whole trees to a designated private facility for reuse. The final destination facility will be selected by the Vendor, approved by the City and must meet all local and state operational requirements. The City will provide the services of collecting and transporting approximately seven hundred fifty

(750) tons per week of unprocessed yard debris feedstock to the City’s current facility.

Option 2 – PROCESSING, HANDLING & TRANSPORT TO CITY LOCATION The Vendor must operate a full-scale processing facility that facilitates the pushing, lifting and relocating of yard debris from one location to another. The vendor must provide necessary staffing and equipment required to maintain a clear working face to allow for dumping. Hours of operation include but are not limited to weekdays, weekends and some holidays.

The Vendor must operate its own processing equipment, load their own transportation vehicles and haul approximately seven hundred fifty (750) tons per week of processed yard debris to a location designated by the City for reuse in a current City process. The City’s reuse facility is located approximately 25 miles from the processing facility.

Whole trees will still need to be hauled to a separate final destination location determined by the Vendor. The City will provide the services of collecting and transporting approximately seven hundred fifty (750) tons per week of unprocessed yard debris feedstock to the City’s current facility.

Option 3 – RECEIVE & PROCESS MATERIALS AT A NON-CITY LOCATION The Vendor must operate a full-scale processing facility provided and operated by the Vendor at a location conveniently placed for disposition of yard debris feedstock by city trucks. The facility may act as a transfer station or full-service processing center.

The Vendor must provide necessary staffing and equipment required to receive material and maintain a clear working face to allow for dumping during the hours of operation.

Hours of operation include but are not limited to evenings, weekends and some holidays.

A variation of this option is acceptable. Vendor must provide a description of where and how material will be received, processed and hauled. Locations and maps are required

C. TRANSPORTATION & REPORTING

General Requirements The vendor must provide sufficient labor, materials, and equipment to load and transport an average of 150 tons of yard debris chips or mulch from one processing facility to a final destination daily.

Equipment The equipment to be provided by the selected vendor shall include heavy equipment for grinding, pushing, loading and trailers capable of hauling 80 to 125 cubic yards of processed yard debris. The trailers must be equipped with a live or walking floor to allow for self-unloading at the processing site. A minimum of one empty trailer must always be available at the pre-processing site. It will be the responsibility of the vendor to ensure that the appropriate staffing levels are equitable to the amount of trailers and receptacles to ensure that all standards are met for service. The user agency can provide prior examples to awarded vendor once contract is executed. Vendor would need to be able to meet the standards that are put before them. Vendor should be capable of handling volume estimates of yard debris as described in the scope of work. The defined pre processing sites include but are not limited to the James Jackson Landfill, Hartsfield Landfill, or any designated location by the user agency. Vendor needs to be able to meet the standards. User agency would not be able to advise vendor how to pull trailers or sizes of containers – this would be something that the vendor would provide in their plan of action.

Legal Requirements The vendor must provide and operate transportation equipment that meets all Federal, State, and local laws, rules, regulations, permit requirements, license conditions, and any other applicable regulations, except to the extent that more stringent standards are imposed by this solicitation.

The following items outline processing standards required by the City. Additional standards may be required in the final agreement. Vendors may offer alternative standards if they demonstrate to the City’s satisfaction that their proposal offers an equivalent or better process of operation achievable of the standards below in Table 1. Vendor would be able to communicate to the user agency as to their plan of action to measure and gauge contamination levels. The user agency needs to understand thresholds that would be allowable to the vendor. Vendor would have to communicate to the user agency as to their reasoning for denial or acceptance of organic materials. Inorganic materials would automatically be separated generally. The user agency will leave testing methods to the vendor’s discretion to determine contamination levels.

TABLE I - FINAL PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS

PRODUCT1 PERCENT

CONTAMINATION2

FINAL PRODUCT

STANDARDS3

1ST RIGHT OF

REFUSAL4

WOOD

CHIPS

<l%(dry weight) of contaminants such as plastic, glass, metal, or other foreign material

Absent of any objectionable odors and color.

Particle size must be <2.5”

10.0%

MULCH

<2% (dry weight) of contaminants such as plastic, glass, etc. and within EPA

Standards for heavy metals and have no objectionable odors or colors.

Particle size must be <2.0” Moisture Content must be 35-60% Organic Matter must be >25%

Soluble Salts must be <11(mmhos/cm) pH between 6.5 to 8.0 Zero/Traces of Sulfides

COMPOST

<1% (dry weight) of contaminants such as plastic, glass, etc. and within EPA Standards for heavy metals and have no objectionable odors or colors.

Particle size must be <1/4” Moisture Content must be 30-35% Organic Matter must be >25% Soluble Salts must be < 2.0 (mmhos/cm) CO2 of <1% Zero to Traces of Sulfides pH between 6.5 - 8.0 Ammonia levels of < 0.05 ppm Ammonium levels of < 0.2 to 3.0 ppm Nitrites of <l.0 ppm Nitrate levels of < 300 ppm

COLUMN HEADINGS DEFINED

1. Identifies the final product to be produced.

2. Means the maximum acceptable percent of foreign contamination/material in final product.

3. Specifies the minimum quality and characteristics of the final product

4. Means the amount of product from the processing facility that may be used by the City or designated 3rd-Party customer on a monthly basis. This amount is based on the percentage of the incoming weight of acceptable yard debris (as defined herein) delivered to the processing facility, during the month period, three months prior to the month which the City picks up the above materials. Quantities of the above materials eligible to be picked up by the City, but not picked up by the City during any one-month period shall be carried forward for six months.

Weight Tickets and Invoicing for Payment Weight tickets will be issued to each collection and hauling vehicle entering and leaving the site with unprocessed or processed material. Weight tickets will include the following:

Date and time Facility/Location Material Net and Tare Weights

Itemized invoices for payment must be submitted to the designated department representative of each department DPW, DOA, DPR and DWM via hard copy or electronically. At a minimum, each invoice must include the following:

Date of service Daily tonnage and monthly totals Rate charged per ton as indicated in the contract Purchase order number Specific invoice number for tracking

The user agency has scales of their own that are certified twice a year and we provide certification of the scales to the vendor. Vendor would operate the user agency’s scales at their discretion. Vendor will process and haul all yard debris materials– we will provide the weight certification to match. If for any reason the vendor would seek to contest or dispute weight tickets distributed by the City of Atlanta and the scales in their possession, vendor is able to contact the state of Georgia for documentation certifying the scales and to their calibration. In the event that an audit should occur, all hard copies of weight tickets and related documentation can be provided on request.

Indemnification

The City of Atlanta reserves the right to determine, in its sole discretion, whether any aspect of the qualifications and proposal meets the criteria in this solicitation.

The City also reserves the right to seek clarification, to negotiate with any vendor submitting a response, to reject any or all responses with or without cause, and to modify the procurement process and schedule and to award multiple options to single vendors or single options to multiple vendors. If this solicitation is withdrawn, and/or the project canceled by the City for any reason, the City shall have no liability to any vendor for any costs or expenses incurred in responding to the solicitation or answering clarification requests.

Yard Debris Processing, Hauling and Diversion Program Cost (Minimum Requirements)

Provide separate cost proposal for processing yard debris and trees at the City’s facility located at 2175 James Jackson Parkway and hauling to non-city final destination.

Provide separate cost proposal for processing yard debris and trees at the City’s facility located at 2175 James Jackson Parkway; and transporting the processed material to a city owned site located 25 miles away.

AT A MINIMUM, SEPARATE COST PROPOSALS MUST BE SUBMITTED IF YOU

ARE BIDDING ON OPTIONS I and II.

Option III does not require a separate cost proposal. Option III allows the vendor to suggest a processing method not list in the scope of work, All costs are all inclusive of processing, equipment usage, hauling, fuel, etc.

Terms/Contract Duration The contract terms for this solicitation will be for three (3) initial years, with two (2)- one

(1) year renewal options at the City's sole discretion.

If during the term of this contract the final processed material needs to transition from Vendor to be hauled to a different city owned facility less than 25 miles from the processing facility, a 90-day notice must be given by the City to the awarded Vendor and the new rate for hauling to an offsite City facility will be initiated. User agency is open to all price adjustment mechanisms that will better assist the user agency’s operation and revenue streams.