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MONROE — The city of Monroe in conjunction with Rumpke Recycling is offering residents a free, larger 65-gallon recycling bin beginning July 1, in an effort to encourage more recycling and to reach a higher recycling goal.

The 65-gallon bin will be offered at no cost for six months to any resident interested in receiving a larger recycling container — than the current 18-gallon bin — until January 2009, said Monroe City Manager William Brock. The container rental fee will cost $1 a month beginning in 2009, Brock said.

"We'll want to figure out the cost of recycling bins compared to the cost we're getting back from this program. If we can increase the amount of recycling by doing this, thus increasing our reimbursement, maybe we can reduce that — the $1 container fee — to 75 cents or 50 cents," he said.

City Council directed the administration to look into the larger recycling containers to encourage more recycling in the community to benefit the environment, Brock said.

"We get a report twice a year about how much reimbursement we get back from the county for recycling, and we're teetering on the edge of being in the next category to get more reimbursement back," he said.

"This is a method of increasing recycling. Obviously, if you have a larger container, you get more recycling in there. "

The Butler County Department of Environmental Services submitted a "community recycling incentive" payment to the city for the period of July through Dec. 2007 in the amount of $1,707.23 based on Monroe's recycling tonnage of 243.89. The payment is based on a $7 per ton award for material collected, county officials said.

Monroe would like to increase its percentage of total tonnage from 9.46 percent in the community recycling standards, where it ranks third behind Fairfield's 10.50 percent, to above 10 percent, which would award the city $17 per ton for material collected, Brock said.

The recycling proceeds are placed in the city's garbage fund and are used to buy recycled materials for its community parks like rubberized swings sets, he said.

Call the city's Utilities Department at (513) 539-7374 and select option 3 to sign-up for a 65-gallon recycling container.

Contact this reporter at (513) 483-5219 or dewilson@coxohio.com.

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