HANCOCK – The city of Hancock has officially hired a private waste collection company after action taken Wednesday by the city council.

By a vote of 4-0, council approved the five-year contract with Waste Management of Michigan for garbage and recycling collection. Absent from the meeting were council members Joe Bauman, Ron Blau and Gregory Markkanen.

City Manager Glenn Anderson said Wednesday the contract with Waste Management includes all the requirements in the request for proposals the city sent out to three companies earlier this year.

“It’s very clean language,” he said of the contract.

At the June 15 council meeting when members voted to go with the company, Anderson said the Waste Management five-year contract provides a guaranteed 11.2 percent increase in annual rates with the first year costing $207,000 and the fifth year costing $233,300. The current annual cost for city garbage collection is $281,000.

The city received RFPs from two companies, Eagle Waste and Recycling of Eagle River, Wisconsin, and Waste Management of Michigan.

Waste Management will begin collecting garbage and recycling once a week beginning Sept. 12, Anderson said Wednesday.

The items Waste Management will collect for recycling includes but isn’t limited to types 1 to 8 plastic, clean pizza boxes, and glass, which was an item many city residents wanted to be part of the recycling effort in the city.

There was some confusion about whether the company to which Waste Management takes the recycling items – Eagle Waste and Recycling – would take plastic bags, but Anderson said the company will take them.

Anderson said eventually Waste Management will also collect waste from businesses in the city.

“We’re still working on commercial accounts,” he said.