Trustees for the Metropolitan Environmental Trust voted to renew Thursday agreements with four companies that place disabled workers in jobs at eight of The M.e.t.'s 11 recycling centers.
"We're making jobs for hard-to-employ people, and we're also trying to save the planet," said Executive Director Michael Patton. "It's a great workforce to use for recycling. They come to work every day, they're on time, they're happy for their job, so we're really excited to do that."
The renewed agreements are with the Major Group for the East Tulsa and Collinsville recycling centers; the Bridges Foundation for the Jenks and Glenpool centers; ResCare for the Bixby center; and Show, Inc., for the 81st Street, Central Tulsa and Sand Springs centers.
The board of trustees voted unanimously to renew those agreements for one year.
Agreements with Show, Inc., for the Broken Arrow center and with Central State Community Services Oklahoma for the Coweta and downtown Tulsa centers were not renewed.
"We have limited contracts, so most of these have been a five-year contract, and we're at the end of our fifth year," Patton said.
The agreements that were not renewed will be opened up to bids. Patton said The M.e.t. would prefer to continue working with the currently contracted companies.
Renewed agreements go into effect Dec. 31.
