Marble Hill officials recently voted to extend the city’s trash collection contract with Waste Connections, a Cape Girardeau company that has provided the service to the city’s residents since 2014.

Three companies — Waste Connections, Republic Services of Dexter and Southern Solid Waste LLC of Marble Hill — bid on the contract.

Waste Connections’ pricing was lower initially and throughout the contract’s five-year term in residential and commercial service. Comparing pricing throughout the contract — pickups per week, size of dumpsters, etc. — Waste Connections consistently had the lowest pricing of the three bids.

Its residential price for the first year of the contract (one pickup per week) was $11.95, 16% lower than Southern Solid Waste and 17% lower than Republic Services. In the fifth year of the contract, Waste Connections’ residential rate would be 23% lower than Southern Solid Waste and 29% lower than Republic Services. Over the contract’s five years, Waste Connections’ residential rate increased about 2.5% per year, while Southern Solid Waste’s rate increased 4% per year, and Republic Services’ increased 5% per year.

For commercial service, Waste Connections’ first-year bid was 10% lower than Southern Solid Waste and 25% lower than Republic Services for a 2-yard dumpster. For an 8-yard dumpster in the first year of the contract, Southern Solid Waste’s pricing was 12% higher than Waste Connections, while Republic Services charged the same price.

Waste Connections pricing held steady in the third, fourth and fifth years of the contract, while Southern Solid Waste and Republic Services built in pricing increases for each of those years. For example, an 8-yard commercial dumpster, emptied twice a week in the fifth year of the contract would cost a customer $290 per month. That same customer would pay $356.51 under Southern Solid Waste’s pricing and $352.50 with Republic Services.

The bids provided five years’ worth of pricing for residential and commercial customer pickups once per week, twice per week and every other week. Waste Connections and Republic Services priced commercial dumpsters up to 8-yards of capacity. Southern Solid Waste included a 10-yard dumpster capacity.