The Hicks-Hudson administration and Lucas County leaders have inked a new, tentative 10-year, nearly $10 million-a-year contract with the company that collects trash and recyclables in the city.

The renegotiated contract with Republic Services, which is handled by the Lucas County Solid Waste Management District for the city, runs through Aug. 31, 2026, and could cost less than what Toledo pays for the service now, officials told The Blade on Thursday.

It increases the number of free bulk pickups Toledoans are allowed from one each quarter to one each month.

Paul Rasmusson, of Republic, said the number of bulk pick-ups offered to Toledoans was a main concern for residents.

He said residents were confused about the bulk pickup procedure and often didn’t know they needed to call to schedule a pickup, so large trash items sometimes sat at the curb for long periods, creating blight, he said.

Republic drivers will now report when they see bulk items sitting at the curb or junk from evictions that needs to be collected. Residents can only schedule their monthly pickups to occur on the day after the regular trash pickup, he said.

“We are going to identify everything in the area the day before, whether it was called in or not, and we will collect everything,” Mr. Rasmusson said.

The cost for the city is less because the new contract dumps a reward incentive program started in 2011 that was supposed to allow residents the opportunity to recover the full amount spent on waste collection by accumulating points for recycling. Those points were supposed to be redeemed at local businesses but the program was a failure with less than 3 percent of residents participating, Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken said.

“The last contract had a heavy emphasis on [recycling rewards company] Recyclebank to induce recycling,” Mr. Gerken said. “That hasn’t worked and there was a cost to it for the contract .... It was a great concept [but] its implementation failed.”

Toledo switched the city’s trash collection to the private company in 2011. The controversial decision to shut down the municipal-run refuse department in favor of a private contract for trash collection, effected by Lucas County, was approved by council on March 30, 2011 with an 8-4 vote.

Allied Waste Services, which is now called Republic, submitted the lowest of three bids to the Lucas County Solid Waste Management District.

The city charges a $5 monthly fee for senior citizens with a homestead exemption and $8.95 a month for all other households.

The trash fee is expected to collect $8.8 million in 2015. About $9 million was collected last year but the company’s 2014 bill was about $9.4 million.

As fuel stays under $3 a gallon, the price for the service decreases but it will increase if fuel costs more than $4 a gallon.

The company now charges $8.67 per household, per month. With 94,850 households, that comes to more than $9.8 million on an annual basis. Beginning Dec. 1, under the new contract, that drops to $8.15 per household, per month. That rate will drop to $7.87 per household, per month because of current fuel prices.

Mr. Gerken lauded the partnership between the city and county to hire the private trash hauler. He called it “the most dynamic public-private partnership.”

Toledo Chief of Staff Bob Reinbolt said the monthly fee structure for residents remains unchanged and it would be up to Toledo City Council to change it.

The agreement has to be approved by city council and the county commissioners.

The number to call for bulk pick-ups remains 419-936-2511.

Contact Ignazio Messina at: imessina@theblade.com or 419-724-6171 or on Twitter @IgnazioMessina.

First Published October 16, 2015, 4:00 a.m.