Iowa City may negotiate contract with trash-to-ethanol company

Iowa City may be headed toward negotiations with the same trash-to-ethanol company Marion is working with.

The City Council likely will be asked to approve a resolution that would allow city staffers to negotiate terms and price with Fiberight LLC at its Dec. 17 meeting, Public Works Director Rick Fosse told the council at a work session Tuesday night.

The Maryland-based company made the only submission in a request for proposals from the city earlier this year for firms that would take garbage from the city landfill for use in ethanol production.

If a contract is reached, it would bring a “paradigm shift” in refuse collection in Iowa City, Fosse said.

Fiberight has said it could reduce the amount of solid waste going into Iowa City's landfill by up to 80 percent. The company says it can make ethanol out of food waste and contaminated material that cannot be recycled.

In August,

Fiberight and Marion signed a deal to send garbage to an ethanol plan in Blairstown in Benton County.