TWIN FALLS, Idaho — The Twin Falls City Council has approved a new 10-year sanitation contract that preserves curbside recycling and expands the service, a decision city leaders say was driven by overwhelming public support revealed in a recent citizen survey.
WATCH | Twin Falls saves and expands curbside recycling after citizen survey—
Twin Falls Mayor Jason Brown said the council's choice was clear once the survey results came in.
"You saw tonight that this one was really more generated around the recycling. Whether the citizens wanted to recycle, to continue that program or not, last week we saw in our citizen survey most citizens were we're happy to keep that service," Brown said.
The survey asked residents their thoughts about recycling and whether they saw value in the service. Brown said the level of support stood out.
"It was actually really quite surprising for me to see that again about 85% of the respondents really supported the recycling program," Brown said.
In December 2025, the city asked sanitation provider PSI to provide a range of bids for waste collection, both including and excluding the costs of collecting residential recycling twice a month.
The new contract, approved Monday night, will cost $6.53 per household for solid waste and $5.79 per month for recycling, which will collect additional materials like mixed paper, newspaper, and No. 1 and No. 2 plastics. Service may be expanded to include glass in the future.
Chelsea pointed to the strong turnout for the survey as evidence of resident demand.
"We had an outstanding number of participants for the survey. If there's more accepted for recycling, they want it, they want to keep it," Chelsea said.
One of the biggest challenges in the city's curbside collection has been the inclusion of non-recyclable materials in the cans with the orange lids, resulting in contamination that sent entire loads to the landfill.
In its new contract, PSI agrees to notify the city if any recycling loads go to the landfill, answering a concern that's come up repeatedly while I've reported on this topic.
"One of the things that we've heard from our citizens was, ' What can't go in?' You'll recycle number two, number three plastic, whatever it may be at that point, and having a clearer understanding of what that is, I think will be a big success going forward," Brown said.
Rollout of the new services will begin Jan. 1, 2027.
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