HAULERS LINE UP FOR L.A.'S TRASH.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

A half-dozen companies have submitted proposals to take Los Angeles trash outside city limits, giving the City Council more choices as it debates whether to continue dumping at Sunshine Canyon Landfill.

The Bureau of Sanitation doesn't yet have cost comparisons, so officials were unable to say Tuesday how the bidders stack up against Browning-Ferris Industries, which is seeking a renewal of its five-year contract to haul the city's residential waste to Sunshine Canyon.

The City Council must decide by early February if it will renew the $28 million-a-year contract with BFI.

Councilman Greig Smith, who has led the effort to end Los Angeles' use of the Granada Hills dump, said he was pleased with the response, considering that only one other company submitted a bid the last time the city sought alternative trash options.

``I wanted to see flexibility in who we deal with. By dealing with one company only we had no flexibility.''

Most of the companies are traditional trash and recycling companies that offer landfill space and transfer stations, where garbage trucks deposit trash, which is reloaded onto long-haul trucks.

But at least one respondent, Grand Teton Enterprises, offered to convert Los Angeles trash into fuel at a facility it plans to build in Fontana.

``We can actually 100 percent divert waste from a landfill,'' said Doug Roberts, president of Grand Teton.

Another bidder is Waste Management Inc., which last year offered to haul the city's trash to landfills in Riverside County and the Antelope Valley but pulled its proposal at the last minute because managers believed the city wasn't serious about getting out of Sunshine Canyon.

The Bureau of Sanitation said that Sun Valley Paper Stock submitted a proposal to use its trash sorting and transfer station, but company officials said they did not make a formal offer because the facility isn't built yet.

Kerry Cavanaugh, [phone]

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

TRASH BIDS

The following companies submitted proposals for disposing of Los Angeles' residential trash:

--Consolidated Disposal Services would use a trash facility in Sun Valley. It is a subsidiary of Republic, the third-largest garbage company in the nation.

--Grand Teton Enterprises plans a facility in Fontana that would convert trash to fuel.

--Southern California Disposal would utilize a trash transfer station in Santa Monica.

--Eco-logics would haul trash to remote landfills from a transfer station in Culver City.

--Waste Management Inc., the nation's largest trash hauler, would utilize Bradley Landfill in Sun Valley and the Antelope Valley Landfill.

--MDSI of LA Inc. did not return phone calls.

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