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Comprehensive Review of S olid W aste Collection and Disposal Options v2.1 34 10/22/12 3.1.2.1 Advantages  By utilizing a third-party contractor/private hauler under contract to the Town, the Town will avoid direct capital costs for new recycling collection vehicles and new recycling carts. Similarly, the Town will avoid additional professional salary costs associated with hiring a potentially significant number of new personnel to manage its own program. However, the Town would retain management personnel to oversee the contractor, manage the program and provide outreach and education to its residents.  With implementing third-party contracting for its recyclables, the Town may usurp more control over its recyclable materials than is presently afforded by the County program. The Town could, through its own contract, explore opportunities for increased recycling revenue through various revenue sharing arrangements. Recycling revenue can vary substantially from month to month depending on market conditions. Municipalities that receive a higher revenue share when markets are high will also have a risk of receiving no revenue or even paying the market to take the recyclables when markets are low. For this reason, municipalities often opt to assume less risk by accepting a smaller share of the revenue with the contractor. The Town would need professional guidance to establish revenue sharing terms in the contract to control its risk.  The Town could control the recycling collection schedule and coordinate it with the residential pickup days.  SCS is aware of other experienced private haulers in recyclables collection and management that are capable of providing quality recycling collections. This would promote competitive bids for the Town service. 3.1.2.2 Disadvantages  Based on a cursory survey of relative industry service rates, SCS believes it is unlikely, but not impossible, that the Town would receive a more competitive bid than the County currently provides. The County presently dominates a large service area in the region, and as a result, has more bargaining power and can get bulk discounts for operating their program and managing collected materials.  Soliciting a Request for Proposal for Recycling Services and subsequent contract negotiations would require industry-specific expertise to minimize future contract disputes and public relations issues from service levels that might be less than anticipated.  While there are contract instruments, such as bid and performance bonds, that can mitigate the chances of service disruptions under a third-party contract program, the risks of such disruptions are still greater than if it the Town operated its own program.