Rush Township residents will soon be dumping more than double the amount of money into their bills for trash collection services.

During Thursday’s monthly meeting, township supervisors approved a 5-year contract for garbage pickup with Tamaqua Transfer.

Under it, residents will pay $450 per year for trash collection. With the current contract through Tamaqua Transfer, they pay $194 per year.

The Tamaqua-based company bid $3.3 million, which was substantially lower than the other bid received by the board last month.

Supervisors tabled awarding any bids in May.

The contract passed unanimously Thursday and will go into effect in 2025.

The existing contract was approved in 2019 and was $1.49 million for five years. It will expire in nine months.

During discussions with trash collectors last month, it was noted that the last contract was signed before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following COVID, costs for trash processing, diesel and other expenses have skyrocketed, they said.