STARKVILLE — Since city garbage bag distribution began Jan. 24, only about 12 percent of eligible customers have picked them up.

The city, which has for years delivered garbage bags to residents as part of its sanitation services, changed the program this year, requiring residents to pick up the bags at the Sanitation Department office at 506 Dr. Douglas L. Conner Drive by April 1. As of Tuesday, roughly 1,400 of 11,666 garbage bag rolls have been claimed, Sanitation Director Christopher Smiley said.

Mayor Lynn Spruill said the city will make accommodations for individuals who may not be able to travel to the sanitation department, such as those who are handicapped or have a disability.

“We have a whole list of people who are disabled who we go to do a specific pickup of their trash,” she said. “They can leave it at the garage or leave it at the door for pickup. Those people are on our list for garbage bag delivery.”

Aldermen in November increased the monthly residential sanitation fee by $1 to pay for the garbage bags, with each roll containing 104 bags. Spruill said the city paid $106,000 for the rolls, more than double the $50,000 it had paid in previous years.

“That’s why we increased the fee because the bags went up by 100 percent, just like we increased gas cost and increased labor costs,” Spruill said. “We were due for an increase, but a large part was due to the increased cost of the garbage bags.”

Spruill said the city changed the distribution from delivery to pickup because, in years past, people would follow behind the trucks delivering the garbage bags and steal them from where they had been dropped off.

To pick up bags, residents must present their Starkville Utilities Department bill and a form of identification. Bags not picked up will be used internally for city events and sanitation purchases or rolled over to next year’s pickup, Spruill said.

Smiley said he has received positive feedback about the switch from trash bag distribution to pickup. He also said this process gives residents the opportunity to learn about the sanitation department and its location, giving a “face to the place.”

“We deal with a lot of different issues,” Smiley said. “We have a lot of people say, ‘I’ve been living here 40 or 50 years and don’t know where the sanitation department is,’ so now people can come see where our department is.”