The way Key Westers will recycle is expected to change in the next two months as the customary recycling bins in the Southernmost City are replaced with 65-gallon wheeled recycling carts.</p><p>The Key West City Commission on Tuesday was expected to approve the $631,290 expenditure for 13,000 of the carts.</p><p>The city's residential recycling rate has lingered around 7 percent of all solid waste collected, around 60,000 tons per year, for the past five years.</p><p>City Utilities Manager Jay Gewin, in an executive summary prepared for City Manager Bob Vitas, laid out the reasons for the shift including:</p><p><LI> "The current 18-gallon bins are far too small to capture all of the recyclable materials produced by the typical household."</p><p><LI> "Other communities that have shifted to larger recycling carts have experience significant increases in residential recycling rates."</p><p><LI> "With a shift away from twice-weekly solid waste pickup, larger recycling containers are needed as we encourage residents to recycle a larger percentage of their materials."</p><p>That last comment relates to another planned initiative -- there's not yet a fixed timetable -- that would move from a twice-weekly trash and once weekly recycling pickup to what's called a 1-1-1 pickup, with one day a week each for yard waste, recycling and trash.</p><p>All the changes to recycling policy and infrastructure are the result of a solid-waste master plan adopted by the City Commission in August. Tampa-based Kessler Consulting, contracted in 2010 to conduct the $379,000 study, prepared the analysis and recommendations.</p><p>The carts are being purchased through a piggyback contract with Deerfield Beach from California-based manufacturer Rehrig Pacific Co. Each cart will have a tracking chip that associates that cart with a particular address and, down the road, could be used to monitor each household's recycling rate.