<B>Louisville Inks New Recycling Contract</B>

The city of Louisville, Ky., expects to save about $100,000 a year under a new three-year, $1.4 million recycling contract, according to The Courier-Journal.

Household recyclables will be picked up by a different company with more high-tech trucks that can compact items as they go - enabling them to carry bigger loads.

Otherwise, the pickup schedule, eligible items, procedure and drop- off locations will remain the same. "From the public's standpoint, nothing has changed," said Rudy Davidson, director of the city's Department of Solid Waste Management and Services.

The city has signed the new contract, with options to renew for two additional years, with Industrial Disposal, the lowest of three bidders. Industrial will replace Rumpke of Kentucky in serving the 86,000 eligible households.

The city has been satisfied with Rumpke's services but wanted the additional savings under the new contract, Davidson said. "It purely came down to price," Rumpke said.

Industrial, whose parent company is Republic Services, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., also has contracts for trash or recycling pickup or both with some of the area's small cities, including Middletown, Anchorage and Jeffersontown. Republic came to the area in 1999 and has since acquired BFI Waste Systems, Industrial Disposal and some assets from a merger between Waste Management and USA Waste, Hall said.

Industrial is the third company to provide recycling services since the city began its program 10 years ago. Waste Management of Kentucky held the contract from 1990 to '95.