As Bristol residents will soon find out, the cost of trash pickup in the town will be increasing for the next year.

A letter will be enclosed in this year’s real estate tax bill that states the cost of trash pickup will be increasing this July, with the price the state landfill charges the town for tipping going up from from $35 per ton to $39.50 per ton. Next year will hit even harder as costs increase to $47 per ton July 2018.

The cost increases hit the town budget hard and could trickle down to residents in the form of higher taxes. The letter to residents will also offer ways residents can help decrease the cost of trash pickup in the future. The easiest — and most important — way, of course, is to reduce waste and increase recycling. Bristol’s recycling rate averages between 25 and 28 percent, which, while up from the 19 percent it was five years ago, is well below the 35 percent the state requires for towns to get money from the state in the form of a profit sharing check.

Town Councilman Timothy Sweeney, chairman of Bristol Recycles, said the increase in recycling rates over the past five years is due to town ordinances put in place that require residents to put their recycle bin out, even if it is empty, if they want their trash picked up. He also said the goal of Bristol Recycles is to try to educate people on recycling in order to reach that 35 percent, or beyond.

“What we constantly run into is that people just don’t know what is recyclable and what isn’t recyclable,” Mr. Sweeney said, noting the letter will educate resident on recyclable material. “When people throw a lot of trash into the recycling, it causes ‘contaminated recycling’ and when it is contaminated recycling, they can’t do anything with it. It’s really discouraging because we have to just throw it all out. We really want to get people educated in regards to making sure that it is clean recycling and knowing what that is and also making sure that new residents that come into town understand what the ordinance is and making sure that they understand what our goal is.”

If and when the town does reach the 35 percent rate and begins to receive money from the state, that the money will go toward lowing the cost of trash pickup, Mr. Sweeney said.

“It would go back to the DPW (Department of Public Works) and would go back to hopefully making sure that we are continuing to keep our recycling rates up,” Mr. Sweeney said. “It would also go toward any trash related items that we want it to go to.”