The city of Dubuque is spending about $2 million to automate its garbage pickup.

Right now, workers have to get out physically pick up trash cans and put them into the truck. The goal is to put arms on the garbage trucks to lift and dump the cans.

The city started researching the fully-automated trucks nearly two years ago. The city's Public Works department says this will relieve physical and mental stress on workers, and save money in the future.

Anderson Sainci, the Dubuque Resource Management Coordinator said, "Right now, we're going through our budget process. There's a process to do that. We are going to recommend this to our city council and our city manager to determine when and how that would look like."

The $1.9 million for the automated trash pickup is already in the city's fiscal budget for 2020.