SOUTH HADLEY — The Select Board recently made another key decision in the town’s effort to move to a new trash system next July 1, approving 65-gallon trash carts with orange tops and 95-gallon recycling carts with black tops.

Earlier this year, the board approved a new contract with Republic Services for automated pickup and increased the trash fee from $125 to $225. The current pay-as-you-throw, green bag system will be eliminated when the new system takes effect on July 1.

Department of Public Works Director John Broderick gave the board a progress report on the trash carts at its Nov. 26 meeting. Broderick will place the order for the carts in December, which will be assembled during the first week of June and distributed throughout June in time for the system’s start date.

Broderick also included new rules for the trash system, which he will begin discussing with the public and the Select Board next year. Under the new system, Republic Services will collect trash and recycling only in carts issued by the town. The cart must be closed and rolled out to the curbside by 7 a.m. the day of collection. Any overflow must wait until the next collection day or be disposed of at the recycling center.

South Hadley received a $105,000 grant from The Recycling Partnership to pay for recycling carts and educate residents on the new, single stream recycling system. However, the Select Board also voted to continue the dual stream recycling contract with the Springfield Materials Recycling Facility until 2030.

“We will leave that as dual stream only because we get a better return on the product,” Broderick said. “We’re set up for it in the recycling center right now as we have an open-top dumpster for glass bottles and cans and a compactor for cardboard and paper.”

Due to the compactor, Broderick said Recycling Center staff only haul dumpsters to the larger recycling facility seven times a year, as oppose to once every three or four weeks under a single stream system. The cost to dispose single stream is also higher because MRF must separate bottles, cans and paper themselves. Single stream also causes more contamination, lowering the dividends South Hadley receives for recycling.

“It’s just leaving the door open,” Broderick said. “If we decide as a community sometime between now and 2030 that we want to do our curbside recycling collections and bring it back to dual stream, we would have an option. It doesn’t cost us any more or any less to continue this extension for fire years.”

Currently, Broderick estimates South Hadley receives $9,000 to $10,000 from recycling dividends.

Select Board member Jeff Cyr noted that two different recycling systems for curbside pick and recycling center may discourage dual system recycling, since it would cost residents a $5 convenience fee and a per bag fee in addition to the increase in waste disposal fees that rolled out in July.

“If we keep the dual stream at the transfer station, to me it seems it’s a little confusing to the resident where they have the option to dump it into one bag, but they know that they can separate it,” he said.

Broderick said he would continue to monitor how many residents use the Recycling Center under the new trash system and make adjustments accordingly.

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.