COLUMBIA - Starting on Monday, Feb. 1, the City of Columbia's new trash system will officially begin.
Each household is able to receive 52 trash bags every 6 months or 102 trash bags a year.
The city hopes the new system will encourage residents to find ways to reuse, recycle and put out less waste.
"We'll start recycling more, which of course we have the bags, and we started composting too," said Columbia resident, Garrett Rucinski. "It's honestly cut down our bag output by half."
According to the City of Columbia, through this new system, it will approximately reduce up to 6,000 tons of waste annually.
Single-family residents will still pay a regular residential fee of $17.37 per month for curbside collection, but if families run out of bags, they will have to pay the city for more.
For more bags it will cost $10 for a five-bag roll or $2 per bag. These costs for extra bags covers the fees for collection and disposal.
Each bag can carry up to 50 pounds or less of waste, and the city will only collect trash bags with the city's logo on it.
"We just trying to channel those negative feelings into something positive and teach our kids the future the kind of way of doing things," said Rucinski.
Households are not limited to how many bags they can put out per week, but can plan accordingly, so they do not run out.
This program is set to be in alignment with the city's Climate Action and Adaptation Plan to lessen the amount in the city's landfill.
City of Columbia residents should have received their first packet of trash bag vouchers around Jan. 15. Vouchers can be taken to Columbia stores like Gerbes, Hy-Vee, Menards, Moser's and Schnucks to redeem their trash and recycling bags.
Recycling pick-up will also start back up on Monday and will come bi-weekly. Each household will receive 54 recycling bags per year.
If you have not received your vouchers or your bags are defective, you can call the city's contact center at 573-874-2489.