Georgetown City Council approved Aug. 14 a five-year solid waste and recycling contract with Texas Disposal Systems. The new contract will go into effect Oct. 1 and will add a single-stream recycling program to the city's services.

"[They] negotiated with us to get a very qualified cost of those services annually over the five years, and our customers will not see a change in provider for these services," Assistant City Manager Jim Briggs said. "We've heard from the customers, and the customers like the service that they are getting from the provider. I am happy to be able to express to those customers and to you that we have been able to negotiate a fair price and a fair level of service going forward for the next five years."

The new services will cause an increase in customer rates; however, City Council will adopt those new rates at a future meeting, said Kathy Ragsdale, city environmental and conservation services director.

As part of the single-stream recycling services, customers will now be able to recycle cardboard, plastic bags and plastics 1–7. In addition, the current 18-gallon bins will be replaced with 96-gallon wheeled carts. Curbside pickup of solid waste will continue on a weekly schedule, and single-stream recycling will be collected every other week.

"I think everybody will be happy with this [96-gallon cart]," Ragsdale said. "Historically, the amount of solid waste decreases as people start the recycling within the every two-week period."

The contract also includes seasonal curbside green waste collection. Lawn trimmings will be picked up on nonrecycling weeks from the first Monday in March through the second Friday in May and the first Monday in November through the second Friday in January.

For more information, visit www.recycle.georgetown.org.