WEST MILFORD If the cost of recycling is significantly more than the income it generates, should we continue to pay for it, and if so, how much? Those are the questions the township will face when deciding what to do with its next contract for the pickup of curbside recyclables. Vendors throughout the state were recently asked to bid on a five-year contract to pick up the paper, bottles and cans from residents throughout West Milford. This being no minor expenditure, the town was surprised to find that only one acceptable bidder came forward the same company that has been providing service. Blue Diamond bid $3,384,000, but so far, the town has not agreed. “I’m not comfortable awarding almost three and half million dollars and a five year contract when we only have one bidder,” said Councilman Bob Nolan. The contract on offer to the town would start off in its first year costing the taxpayers $50,000 per month with a total for the year of $600,000. Recyclables do generate money; however the annual income from these discarded items is approximately $100,000. A new debate surfaces here whether recycling is a worthwhile service to the community and the environment. A case is also put forward that it is simply too expensive to ask taxpayers to foot the bill when they might easily recycle at communal bins in the center of town with little or no expense. Council President Bill Gervens said, “I have been reading up on this subject and I was surprised to find there are towns who have decided to get out of the recycling business. Should we care about the environment? Yes, but maybe we have to ask why these towns are deciding to get out of the business.” So why was there only one good bid? Township administrator Rich Kunze told council members that he had spoken to representatives of several companies who said that they did not wish to serve a township as far north as West Milford. Others said the large size of the town made it logistically too difficult for them to serve. Kunze also said, “In 2004 we agreed to a contract [for recycling] at $42,500 per month. The other offers which were rejected were: one for $59,863 per month and another for $77,667 per month.” The agreement made by the council was to work on a month-to-month contract with current vendor Blue Diamond at the new rate of $50,000 per month and spend the early months of 2007 considering all possible options. There is a downside to this, too, pointed out by Township Attorney Fred Semrau. Blue Diamond is required to honor their offer only until Dec. 20 of this year. After that date, they have the right to submit entirely new figures which, if they have been watching the bids available to the town so far, might well come in much higher. Semrau also advised the council to be conscious of public contract law which essentially expects a town who places a contract out for offer to the lowest bidder to follow through with that agreement. Discarding offers with no good reason may be, as Semrau said, “problematic.”