Federal Way will see increased rates for garbage collection beginning in January.

Rob Van Orsow, Federal Way’s solid waste and recycling program coordinator, said the biggest impact will be on commercial customers, but residents will also feel a bit of an extra tug on their wallets because of the increases.

“Looking at commercial, we used a 1-cubic-yard dumpster, and they would be looking at about $7.50 more a month,” he told the Federal Way City Council during its Nov. 15 meeting. “For residential we chose a 35-gallon cart because that’s the service level most customers are at…(these increases) would impact this (example) by about $1.30 a month.”

Van Orsow said there are three components to garbage services from the King County Solid Waste division and how they’re charged.

The three components are service, disposal and taxes and surcharges. For 2012, the service increase will be 3.2 percent. The largest increase will come from the disposal component, with the King County Council having decided to increase the fee per ton from $95 per ton to $114 per ton.

“(That fee) has not increased for 40 years,” Van Orsow said.

The surcharge and tax rate will increase by 28 cents a month for residential users, while commercial users will see an increase of $2.17.

One of the biggest reasons for this increase comes from a decreased use of the regional system overall, Van Orsow said.

“The amount of tons going through the system is down by about 40 percent,” he said. “That’s why there’s this increase.”

Van Orsow noted the city is planning to notify customers about the changes via direct mail, and that information about the rate increases will also be available on the city’s website in the near future.