The Bowmanstown Borough Council opened the bidding for garbage and recycling collection and received only one bid - from Tamaqua Transfer & Recycling.

The new contract starts Oct. 1. It is for one year at $132,300 and does not include recycling.

The contract options, with curbside recycling collection, were: $182,300 for 1 year, $563,471 for 3 years, and $967,855 for 5 years.

Without recycling they were: $132,300 for 1 year, $407,563 for 3 years, and $698,187 for 5 years.

The current rate is $50,345 a year, which includes curbside recycling.

Larry Wittig, president of Tamaqua Transfer, attended the meeting and explained the increases.

“The bids right now are going insane. It’s not us driving up those costs, but the people we do business with,” Wittig said.

Wittig said there only two landfills, Keystone and Commonwealth, owned by the same person, and they have raised their rates.

“Another component is fuel, which everyone here is painfully aware of,” Wittig said.

Wittig said bids have increased everywhere.

He said the borough of Tamaqua was paying $525,600 per year, but accepted a bid of $786,600 per year for five years from Tamaqua Transfer. Mascaro and GLF (formerly County Waste) each bid around $1.47 million per year for the borough of Tamaqua’s contract, according to Wittig.

Recycling now costs Tamaqua Transfer two to three times as much per ton to get rid of it compared to five years ago, Wittig said.

“Our residents are used to recycling,” Councilperson Kara Scott said. “What are our options for recycling?”

Wittig said West Penn Township purchased a 20-yard recycling container. Residents bring their recycling to the drop-off location. A hauler, like Tamaqua Transfer, could arrange an agreement to haul the recycling to the collecting stations, which would cost less than curbside recycling.

After debate, to try to keep costs down, Bowmanstown council made a motion to go with the 1-year, no recycling plan for $132,300 for the year. Several supervisors preferred the 3-year plan, but the majority vote went with the 1 year plan. Donna Winter, Pam Leiby, and Kara Scott voted against the 1-year plan; the rest were in favor.