Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office announced Wednesday that more than 131,000 Chicago households will get blue cart recycling services in March and April.

“The blue cart recycling program will provide bi-weekly recycling collection services to residents who live in single family homes, two-, three- and four-flat buildings,” a statement said.

The expansion will include 340,000 households and is scheduled to be complete by the fall of 2013. Currently, city officials say 260,000 households receive blue cart recycling service.

(Map: The Mayor’s Office confirmed that areas not pegged for new rollouts will be under future consideration and planning.)

The city said to ensure a smooth transition during the expansion, each of the six city service areas will undergo a gradual expansion of households receiving new recycling services.  

The city said subsequent phases will be announced as collection schedules and routes are finalized.

“The Department of Streets and Sanitation and its partners are expanding our service areas in phases to ensure a seamless transition with effective operations and to make certain that current recycling services are not impacted,” said Charles Williams, commissioner of the Department of Streets and Sanitation.

“We will continue to use the same rollout method throughout the year as we expand recycling throughout the city.”