Summit Hill Borough Council gave tentative approval to its 2022 budget on Monday.

There will be no tax increases but trash collection fees will rise, the council said. The amount of the garbage rate increase will be decided at the borough’s Dec. 20 meeting.

The new general budget lists expenses and income at $1,430,940. It is based on 18.5 mills.

Of that millage, 16.5 mills are for general purposes, 1.5 mills are for street lighting and a half mill is allocated for fire protection.

The council hired a new garbage collector.

It awarded a four-year contract to Tamaqua Transfer with a once-a-year electronic recycling event at a low bid price, for the four-year period - of $1,352,839.

The four-year figure was about $1.2 million less than the only other bid received.

County Waste, which presently has a one-year contract with the borough, did not bid on the contract that was awarded.

No regular recycling is included. Regular recycling would have added $110,000 to the contract price. Councilman David Wargo said even if recycling was included in the bid package, it’s likely the recyclables would be dumped in a landfill.

A representative of Tamaqua Transfer was in the audience and said it has become difficult for garbage collectors to handle recycling. This is because recycling firms require caps and labels be removed from bottles or the entire load is rejected.

Because the recyclables would likely be tossed into landfills, Wargo said he wasn’t in favor of paying the extra amount for a recycling collection.

“I am for recycling, but I am not in favor of wasting taxpayers’ money,” he said.

The Tamaqua Transfer spokesman also said recycling is “very expensive right now.”

Wargo said he spoke to individuals from Tamaqua Transfer and the situation is different today than it was 20 years ago.

“This world has changed in the last 20 years since recycling started,” he said.

When recycling was first initiated, China was a major purchaser of plastics and other products.

“There’s no longer a market for recyclables,” he said.

He said he doesn’t favor adding $40 or $50 to the garbage bill and have the recyclables go to a landfill.

Both the passage of the budget and the hiring of Tamaqua Transfer as the garbage collector passed by unanimous vote.

The new garbage collection contract takes effect in January.