Trash fees increasing in Middletown, but collection service going to once a week

Middletown residents will be paying more for fewer trash collection days starting next year under a new waste hauling contract.

A divided supervisors board voted 3-2 on Aug. 12 to approve a new five-year $28.4 million contract with its current hauler, Waste Management, which will take effect in January. Supervisors Dana Kane and Anna Payne voted against the new contract.

Waste Management was the lowest of three bidders, officials said.

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Under the new contract the township will also move from manual collection twice a week to automated collection once a week. The weekly bulk pickup will also shift to a monthly service limited to one item.

The changes are anticipated to raise trash collection fees a little more than $100 a year for residents from the current $401 a year to $512 compared to the previous contract negotiated in 2019.

Township officials say the increase associated with the automated option was the smallest among the three available pickup options.

The cost to maintain existing twice-weekly manual service where Waste Management haulers physically move trash by hand into the truck would jump roughly $300 a year per household to $700, according to officials.

The township has been discussing the waste hauling contract renewal for six months.

Nearly 3,500 residents out of the 12,000 sent a June survey about the trash collection preferences responded. Of the residents surveyed:

• 51% favored automatic collection over manual.
• 43% favored automated collections once a week
• 49% favored maintaining manual collection twice a week.
• 7.8% favored automated collections twice a week.

Under the new contract, each household will receive 96-gallon totes for trash and recycling collection on automated trucks. Residents can request a smaller can and customers can rent a second can for a fee.

Reporter Jo Ciavaglia can be reached at jciavaglia@gannet.com