CIRA de CASTILLOTGI Staff Writer LIHU’E — The county glass recycling program has hit another snag—this time in the form of an administrative protest filed by unsuccessful bidder Garden Island Disposal. GID claims that the county, without reason or justification,
CIRA de CASTILLOTGI Staff Writer
LIHU’E — The county glass recycling program has hit another snag—this time in
the form of an administrative protest filed by unsuccessful bidder Garden
Island Disposal.
GID claims that the county, without reason or
justification, delayed the procurement process of the glass recycling contract,
including the best and final offer request, which resulted in undue prejudice
to the company.
Through attorney Trudy Senda, the disposal company
requested that no action on the contract, which has been offered to JC
Sandblasting, be taken until GID’s protest is resolved.
JC was offered the
$100,000 glass recycling contract on Feb. 2, but hasn’t signed a final contact
with the county. That will be put on hold until the administrative protest is
resolved.
The county has not had a glass recycling contract in place since
last April. During that time, GID, operators of the county’s recycling
contract, has been stockpiling glass at its facility.
According to the
company’s protest, by last November 300 tons of stockpiled glass had begun to
raise a public safety and health issue for the company.
The company then
decided to expend capital and construct a glass crushing facility.
According to Alvin Tadani, operations manager for GID, the company has invested
over $75,000 in its glass crushing operations.
He said GID plans to
continue processing the stockpiled glass, which Tadani says has reached over
500 tons.
The impact on JC Sandblasting is that GID will no longer have a
need for outside processing for the glass GID collects as part of the Kaua’i
Recycles Program.
Under the previous glass recycling contract, JC would pay
GID per tonnage of glass. That supply, says Tadani is no longer available as
GID is crushing all the glass they collect.
According to Tadani, whatever
glass comes in from the Kaua’i Recycles contract is GID’s responsibility and
they are processing the glass and developing an end product for commercial
use.
The administrative protest shows that GID notified the county in
December of its plans to begin on-site processing of glass.
In the past
GID was the main supplier of glass to JC.
Joanne Carvalho, speaking for JC,
said that the company has been contacted by many commercial businesses and
hotels and doesn’t anticipate problems in acquiring glass to fulfill their yet
unsigned contract.
“We will just have to work harder,” she said.
