Recycler will single sort, take more plastics in east metro

Residents in Maplewood and Falcon Heights soon will be seeing the bright orange trucks of Tennis Sanitation, already a familiar sight in other metro area cities.

Both cities awarded their 2011-2014 recycling contracts to the St. Paul Park company.

"We're the only private hauler that has its own recycling facility," said Willie Tennis, who owns the company with his brother. "That gives us an advantage over the smaller haulers."

Tennis, who took over the company in 1988 when his father and uncle retired, said more products are recyclable under their service, compared to other area haulers.

Staff in Maplewood and Falcon Heights said Tennis' bids for single-stream recycling services stood out among other bids this fall.

"There's no sorting, it makes it easier for people," Tennis said. "It makes them want to recycle more."

Both cities are currently using "dual-sort" recycling services that pick up every other week.

Tennis also currently hauls some of the trash in Maplewood, where nine vendors are licensed for hauling.

The costs to residents, the single-sort option and the expanded list of what can be recycled were factors in awarding their contracts to Tennis, said Miller and DuWayne Konewko, Maplewood director of community development and parks.

Most companies will only take plastics marked 1 or 2 with a neck, Tennis said. His company takes items in categories 1 through 5 and doesn't pay attention to whether the product has a neck or not.

"It doesn't cost them more," Tennis said. "It's just better for the recycling world by taking more products."

The two contracts will mean a big boost in the number of customers served by Tennis Sanitation, which currently contracts for recycling in eight other suburbs and townships. Tennis also bid for one other city this year but wasn't awarded the contract.

To accommodate the increased volume expected with the Falcon Heights and Maplewood contracts, he said he hired three new drivers for three more trucks.

Maplewood's contract with Eureka Recycling will expire Dec. 31. The city started collecting proposals in June and received interest from Eureka, Highland Sanitation and Recycling, Tennis Sanitation, Veolia Environmental Services and Waste Management.

The Maplewood environmental commission scored the proposals in a ranking system before making a recommendation.

Although the environment and natural resources commission and staff recommended continuing a contract with Eureka, the council ultimately decided the cost to the residents (which was lower in the Tennis proposal) was the most important factor, said Chuck Ahl, Maplewood's assistant city manager.

Likewise, Falcon Heights' contract with Waste Management also will expire at the end of the year. Falcon Heights received three proposals: Waste Management, Tennis, and a joint application from Trojes Trash and Eureka Recycling.

Miller said some of the other proposals were not chosen because they included charges for inflation or possible fuel surcharges.

"This was a really nice way for us to lock in our costs and have some kind of predictability," he said.