Starting July 1st, Washington residents will put out one container for trash and one for recycling. The city council unanimously approved a contract with Johnson County Refuse at their meeting Tuesday. The cost for residents will be $19 per month for those with a 65-gallon trash can and it will be charged on their monthly utility bill. The containers will be provided to residents of the city; trash containers will be 35 or 65 gallons and recycling will be a default of a 65-gallon bin, but a 95-gallon bin may be requested. Both trash and recycling will be picked up weekly.

Steve Smith with Johnson County Refuse told the council where the recycled materials will go, “The Scott County facility over there, it’s run by the county, they have a big, massive machine that this stuff all goes through and then there’s also some, some hand sorting part of it. But, the plastic will get sorted into five or six different grades when it goes through there. Tin and aluminum will be sorted out. … I don’t know 100% where everything, where they send everything, but any cardboard that goes in there goes to Wayfair. And within, any cardboard that goes in there within seven days is new cardboard at Wayfair.”

The goal is to maintain the current collection days of the week for residents. The contract with Johnson County Refuse is for five years. Residents with annual trash stickers will be reimbursed.