The City of Dallas officially adopted its 2009-2010 budget on September 23rd.

The Dallas Sanitation Services department initiated some important changes at the same time.

These changes included lowering fees and making plans to switch nearly 180,000 remaining households to OneDAY service in March of next year.

OneDAY is the city’s once-weekly garbage and recycling collection service, where both garbage and recycling are picked up on the same day, one time per week.

Fee changes will go into effect today - Thursday, October 1st.

Dallas Sanitation Services Director Mary Nix says it is largely because of the early success of OneDAY that residential customers will save 64¢ on their bills each month, beginning in October.

“Over the past year, a quarter of the city - 62,500 households in North and Northwest Dallas have transitioned to OneDAY service."

"After seeing how easily it worked and how pleased our customers were with the change, the City Council decided to switch everyone else over to the same program in March 2010,” she explains.

The move to OneDAY is expected to save money as well as benefit the environment.

“From using natural gas vehicles for waste collection to building a methane plant at our landfill, the city is willing to try anything that makes sense and is cost-effective," says Nix.

"OneDAY is both. And best of all, it’s easy for people to do and to remember."

The Sanitation Department will conduct an extensive information campaign to make sure residents know what their OneDAY will be, how to order recycling roll carts for no additional cost, where to place their items for pickup and what items can be recycled.

There will also be calls to those customers for whom the city has phone numbers, a series of public meetings, and a Web site which is currently operational for people already using the service.

Readers can stay informed about the OneDAY program and upcoming changes by visiting http://www.onedaydallas.com.