The City of Bloomington’s sanitation division is asking for a $0.70 per-month rate increase to help with the rising costs of recycling.

Public Works Director Adam Wason says the city added over $80,000 in unexpected recycling processing costs in 2019 alone.

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“Bloomington has always been a community that has valued recycling services," Wason says. "We certainly need to continue to offer that service and will do so. And this is just an effort to help us offset some of the increased cost.”

The city said in a statement that the additional fees would yield a 7 percent increase in overall revenues, covering about 40 percent of 2020’s anticipated costs.

The division will make its request at the March 3 public works board meeting.