Get ready to go green, Pensacola.

The final details of a curbside recycling program were approved Thursday evening by the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority.

The board unanimously voted to approve the garbage rates of $17.99 per month for a 90-gallon trash can, and $3 extra for each additional receptacle.

Recycling containers will be provided at no additional charge.

ECUA customers currently pay $19.62 per month for single-container garbage service with no option for curbside recycling.

There are several reasons for the lower cost.

ECUA will be paid by Allied Waste for the recyclables it collects, and the county will accept ECUA’s recyclables at the county-owned Perdido Landfill for free.

Under the proposal, ECUA would have an agreement to use Allied garbage and recycling transfer stations. That means about 85 percent of the garbage ECUA hauls will be closer to the transfer station than to the landfill. Allied will then take it to the landfill.

The same will be done with recycling.

Moving to a once-a-week pickup also means fewer trips for garbage trucks.

The new program will kick off on Jan. 5, and customers will have just one pickup day a week for garbage, recycling and yard waste.

Executive Director Steve Sorrell said glass products will not be accepted as recyclables and must be placed in garbage cans.

He also said yard waste can be placed in garbage bags or piled and bound as long as it does not exceed four feet in height or width.

In other business, the board approved a request by Sorrell to allow more than $300,000 for unanticipated building permit costs related to the Central Water Reclamation Facility.

Sorrell said when the project was originally budgeted, Escambia County could not estimate the cost of permits before the bidding, so $100,000 was planned for the unknown costs.

The county has since informed the contractor that permit fees will cost more than $400,000.

“It’s a shame that the county is requiring us to pay $400,000 in inspection fees when they could have let us do the inspection ourselves,” said District 5 member Larry Walker.

A 30-minute organizational meeting was held before the ECUA’s regular meeting where Elizabeth Campbell was sworn in as the District 1 representative replacing Logan Fink.

District 3 member Elvin McCorvey was elected board chairman and District 4 member Dale Perkins was elected vice chairman.