BATON ROUGE - Councilmembers voted on a new city-parish garbage contract Wednesday night and landed on a compromise that would make garbage pickup more expensive, but stay at twice a week. 

The East Baton Rouge Metro Council decided Wednesday evening on the Republic Services and Richard's Disposal contracts. The current contract — which costs residents about $23 a month for garbage, recycling and trash collection — expires at the end of February 2023.

The council voted 8-2 on an amended contract to ensure garbage will be picked up twice weekly and cost residents around $35 per month. 

Mayor Broome issued the following statement after the meeting: 

I congratulate the Metropolitan Council for arriving at a compromise to continue providing twice per week garbage services to the citizens of Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish. This compromise comes on the heels of continued negotiations between my office and the contract awardees to find a solution that is palatable. This is the most utilized public service in our community and I thank council members for their due diligence on behalf of our residents. This is a stellar example of the executive and legislative branches working to perfect policy for the people. The new contract begins in March 2023 with service improvements. I support the council’s decision to maintain twice a week collections. The increased cost is never desired but understood in the current economic environment. I look forward to building on the services that we provide to the residents of East Baton Rouge Parish.

The original contract with once-a-week pickups would increase monthly user fees by $5.50 a month to $28.50 a month. An extra cart is $7 a month. Republic Services won't be handling out of the cart trash collection anymore (think debris you put on the curb). Richard's Disposal, Inc won that bid for $7.50 a month per household. That's included in the $28.50 fee and the contract length would be the same.

Republic and Richard's fees would increase by 4% a year starting in March 2024. By the end of the contract length in 2033, residents in East Baton Rouge Parish could be paying about $40 a month for garbage, recycling, and trash collection.

If the Metro Council does not negotiate the increase and the 4% increase per year sticks, residents are looking at $47.61 for a seven-year contract. If the contract extends to 10 years, it would be $53.04 per month.