Partnership vs. Traditional Procurement Model: Which Drives Better Sustainability and Economic Results?

Is your business taking an overly transactional approach to sustainability?

Many companies rely on a traditional procurement model when selecting recycling and waste management vendors. They issue an RFP, compare prices, and

award contracts based primarily on cost. While this method works for basic services, it often fails to drive long-term sustainability improvements—or deliver real cost savings.

In contrast, companies that take a partnership-based approach to recycling and sustainability see higher landfill diversion rates, greater cost savings, and more operational efficiencies.

The Problem with the Traditional Procurement Model

The RFP-driven model prioritizes short-term cost savings over long-term value. This often leads to:

• Inflexible service agreements that don’t adapt to changing business needs.

• Missed sustainability opportunities due to a lack of collaboration.

• Limited innovation, as vendors focus on fulfilling contract terms rather than continuous improvement.

Solving complex sustainability challenges takes time, coordination, and investment. But when the relationship between a company and its provider is purely transactional—as it often is under a traditional RFP—there’s little incentive for the vendor to go above and beyond. The result: stalled progress, surface-level results, and unrealized ROI.

RFPs also tend to focus narrowly on individual waste streams—paper, metals, or hauling, for example. While this makes bidding easier, it prevents companies from seeing the big picture. Often, the financial value created from one commodity could help fund equipment or technology needed to improve another. But when each stream operates in a silo, those opportunities are lost.

And while traditional procurement appears to reduce costs, it can overlook critical inefficiencies. Take hauling, for example: one company worked with Closed Loop Solutions to identify locations where compactors were triggering pickups too early. By adjusting compactor monitoring settings, they cut unnecessary hauls and achieved up to 50% cost savings—far beyond the typical single-digit savings that come from RFP-based negotiations alone.

What Does a Collaborative Approach Look Like?

For companies with complex waste streams, collaboration starts with choosing the right kind of partner. A sustainability managed service provider (SMSP) like Closed Loop Solutions doesn’t just manage one waste stream—it oversees your entire program, bringing strategy, structure, and scalability.

An SMSP acts as an extension of your team, leveraging deep expertise, advanced technology, and a network of vendors to drive continuous improvement. Key benefits include:

• Comprehensive waste audits to uncover inefficiencies and cost-saving opportunities.

• Tech-enabled logistics to optimize pickups, increase landfill diversion, and streamline operations.

• Vendor management to ensure competitive pricing and consistent service quality.

• Regulatory compliance support to minimize risk and avoid penalties.

Rather than issuing isolated RFPs for each material, a collaborative SMSP begins with a holistic audit of your sites, invoices, and existing waste streams. This allows them to uncover inefficiencies, eliminate redundancies, and strategically reinvest value across the system. For example, surplus value from one commodity stream may fund equipment upgrades to increase diversion in another—something that’s impossible when streams are managed separately.

This full-picture, data-driven approach delivers not only higher landfill diversion rates, but deeper, more lasting financial gains.

Reimagine Your Approach to Sustainability

If your business still operates under a traditional procurement model, you may be limiting your sustainability potential—and missing out on significant cost savings. A partnership-based approach through a sustainability managed service provider offers the depth, agility, and long-term results today’s programs require.

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