OCCC has selected Republic Services to collect its recyclable products, as well as the college’s trash and garbage, ending a 15-year relationship with Waste Management, said John Boyd, vice president for Business and Finance.

Republic Services will be paid $60,264.10 for the 2014-2015 fiscal year, which is $5,022.01 monthly, according to information provided by Boyd.

From that, recycling will cost $5,880 a year plus any additional charges for bulb, ballast and battery recycling.

Boyd said OCCC has several different types of recycling.

“We recycle paper, aluminum cans, plastic bottles, light bulbs, batteries, cardboard, all kinds of stuff,” he said.

The new contract reflects an increase over current costs.

The contract with Waste Management’s waste and recycling removal, which cost the college $42,847 for the service from July 1, 2013, to June 30, 2014, according to a college purchase order.

From that, OCCC spent about $6,600 on recycling for Waste Management’s recycling program.

Boyd said OCCC will do business with Republic Services after Waste Management’s contract is up on June 30, 2014.

“We’ve been with Waste Management for about 15 years — quite a long relationship,” he said.

Boyd said a number of waste removal services were considered; however, Republic Services stood out among them from a financial standpoint.

“From all of the different waste disposal contractors that came in, from a pure dollar standpoint, Republic Services was the lowest bidder,” he said.

Boyd said he feels confident about the decision in terms of the pricing and other subjective and objective criteria the Facilities, Personnel, and Purchasing Department made.

“It was their decision that Republic Services was the best company for the job,” he said.

Though OCCC is only allowed by the Oklahoma Legislature to have annual contracts, there are multi-year plans for the pricing, Boyd said.

“We only sign a contract year-to-year because that’s all we’re allowed to do under law.

“We cannot commit more funds to a subsequent fiscal year outside the approval of the Legislature, but we can obtain multi-year pricing.”

Boyd said Republic Services will take over OCCC’s waste disposal services beginning July 1. Their contract will end June 30, 2015.

“If they provide their services to our satisfaction, then we will sign another contract with them on July 1, 2015, through June 30, 2016,” he said.

OCCC has been recycling for several years, Boyd said, starting with basic paper recycling in the late 1980s.

“Different types of recycling started at different times.”

Hazardous waste collection started in the ’80s; cardboard recycling started in the early ’90s; plastic bottles and aluminum can recycling started in the mid-’90s; batteries in the early 2000s; and fluorescent bulbs in 2013, according to information provided.

Boyd said he supports recycling 100 percent.

“As we upgrade, we are trying to be as responsible as we can about our overall green footprint, which includes the recycling effort,” he said.

Boyd said he believes as long as OCCC has the funding, the college’s efforts for going green will continue progressing.

“It does require a level of funding, because being green isn’t cheap,” he said. “Everybody has to come together, including the student body.”

Boyd said it’s a tight push with the funding because OCCC needs to have a revenue stream to cover the costs of recycling.

“We try to make this point to the Legislature that our real mandatory costs go up every year and we try to operate as efficiently as we can,” he said.

“As long as the funding is there, we want to be responsible, and if we can protect our environment, we’re going to play our necessary role to do that.”

For more information about the recycling program, contact Boyd at jboyd@occc.edu.