The City of San Antonio wants you to recycle more, and it will go about it by charging significantly higher garbage collection fees for people who drag more trash out to the curb for pickup, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.

The so called 'Pay as You Throw' plan will kick in this October, according to Assistant City Manager Peter Zanoni.

He says in addition to the 96 gallon brown garbage bin that homes receive now, along with blue and green recycling containers, homes will have the option of getting significantly smaller brown garbage bins, including a 48 gallon one which is half the size of the existing bins.

"By having a greater price differential between the smallest cart and the largest cart, that will incentive the customer to source-separate more at the home, place more stuff in the blue cart and more stuff in the green cart," Zanoni told City Council.

He says the smaller garbage carts will be rolled out to home on the north side next year, and to home on the south side in 2017.

Currently, San Antonio recycles about thirty percent of its total volume of garbage. That is up from just three percent ten years ago, but the city's goal is 60%. Zanoni pointed out that when citizens recycle, the city makes money selling the recyclables to processors. Dumping garbage in rapidly expanding landfills costs the city money.

He says the price differential between the 48 gallon garbage cart and the 96 gallon one will grow over the coming years, and by next decade, people who toss out a lot of garbage will pay $30 more per month for garbage collection than people who have the smallest carts. He said homes that cut their garbage output will actually see their garbage collection rates go down.

"So the goal is this Pay as you Throw system is to have a price differential between the smallest cart and the largest cart to change their minds, change their habits, and recycle more," he said.

Zanoni said this will essentially transform garbage collection into a typical utility. Currently, citizens pay more if they use more electricity and more water, and garbage is simply going to that model.

"The more you use, the more you pay," he said.