Several hundred Effingham County homes will have a second garbage cart to put out on the street next week.

The carts, blue with green lids, are part of a pilot recycling program. The program is being done at no cost to the county, and it’s single-stream recycling, said county sanitation director Connie Burns. That means newspapers, cardboard, magazines, plastic bottles, aluminum cans and glass bottles will go into one container.

“There is no separation needed,” she said.

The pilot program will be available to 750 homes, about 150 in each of the five of the county commission districts. Recycling pickup will begin May 25. The 96-gallon carts are scheduled to be delivered this Wednesday through Friday.

“We tried to pick everything from mobile homes to high-end subdivisions,” Burns said. “We tried to be as diverse as we could.”

Burns and representatives from Republic rode the proposed routes.

“We feel we have a good representation,” she said. “We have residents who are new to the county and residents who have been here all their lives.”

She also said they would welcome any areas that want to come into the program. Bryan County also has begun a recycling program, and Burns said there would be a way to track Effingham County’s participation.

Republic will dispatch a second truck to run the routes in the pilot program and collections will be collected every other Wednesday.

 The pilot program is not part of a recycling rewards program that RecycleBank and Republic Waste proposed to commissioners in March. Burns said she would like to see local businesses take part in the rewards program, if it is adopted.

“The rewards program is a nationwide program, but there is a part that allows us to work through local businesses,” she said.

For more information on the  pilot program, call the county sanitation department at 754-4668, option 0, or visit www.republicservicessavannah.com.