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Sidney Torres' IV Waste awarded city sanitation contract

The contract allows IV Waste to take over garbage and recycling hauling in Lakeview, Gentilly and downriver neighborhoods.

NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans officials have selected IV Waste to take over trash pickup in a large swath of the city. 

A selection committee gave the company, owned by businessman Sidney Torres, the highest scores out of four bidders. Many residents are already used to seeing IV Waste collecting solid waste in the city. 

The company is one of the emergency contractors that came in last year to help, when the current sanitation vendor, Metro Services, fell way behind in its household pickups. Torres says the company drew on its experience in the city in coming up with a winning bid. 

“You will not have any missed pickups at all in the city of New Orleans as far as what we’re responsible for and I will make sure of that, even if I’ve got to be out there picking up the trash myself,” Torres said. 

The company will now negotiate a deal with the Cantrell administration for the western half of Metro’s service area, roughly north of I-10 from the Jefferson Parish line to the Industrial Canal. That’s about 45,000 homes.  

“Overall, IV Waste had the most complete proposal for the city, New Orleans Sanitation Director Matt Torri said. “It provided a tremendous amount of detail in what they were proposing for their service model, to how to improve service for the residents of New Orleans.” 

Torri says IV Waste also submitted the best price. The company offered two options, almost $18 a household per month for once-a-week pickup and nearly $23 for twice-a-week service. 

Right now, residents are paying about $15 a month for solid waste collection. 

“The big task for the city now is to look at our budgets, look forward, look at the service models and determine whether or not we want to move forward with a once a week, twice a week solid waste collection for Service 2 West,” Torri said. 

Torri points out many fixed costs such as labor, equipment and fuel have skyrocketed since 2016, the last time the city sanitation contract went out for bid. 

“We knew we were going to see an increase; we just weren’t sure how much that increase was going to be,” Torri said 

Back at IV Waste, Torres suggested a third option. 

“My opinion is there’s a lot of homes that don’t need twice a week and one of the suggestions that I’m going to make to the city is maybe we give an extra can for larger families,” Torres said. 

Torres says his company will be ready to hit the streets in November, earlier if need be. 

Thursday, a city sanitation selection committee will discuss bids to provide garbage service east of the Industrial Canal, in New Orleans East and the Lower Ninth Ward. 

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