Complaints follow changes to rules for Polk County pickups of yard waste

Don Holder wanted to hear from the Polk County Board of Commissioners why they agreed to a contract with a waste hauler that will not pick up his yard waste the way it has always been done.

A native of Polk County, he has paid taxes toward the county’s waste program to pick up his yard waste but six-foot lengths of his bird of paradise trimmings still remain on his lawn in Winter Haven.

“The trash program that you have started, which I have already paid with my taxes, you are eliminating what I paid for,” said Holder, during the public comments portion of the Polk County Commission meeting on Sept. 5.

Holder’s property is among several locations around Polk County where yard waste or trash remains because it has not been picked up. And it likely will not be picked up due to changes in June to how yard waste and bulk collections are handled.

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Holder, 76, said he has a heart condition that will not allow him to cut up the sizable pile of waste – which is about the size of a small car – for the new yard waste pickup requirements. He said the new rules are a boon for private contractors he has called to remove his waste, but the coast to do so ranged between $200 and $400 - too expensive for him.

A flyer went out to county residents in June explaining the new requirements that took effect June 5. Here is a summary of the new program:

• Yard waste branches should not exceed two inches in diameter and no longer than three feet.

• Waste must be in containers and weigh less that 30 pounds each.

• Up to four containers are allowed each week.

For bulk collection: 

• Items are limited to furniture and appliances.

• Collection will be once a month on a set schedule.

• Items that are not attached to a structure can all be collected.

• No construction materials, nor items from evictions or move outs will be collected.

Both yard waste and bulk items are supposed to be at the curb no later than 6 a.m. on the scheduled day for pickups. Further, items not in compliance will not be picked up and if left by the curb the property owner could receive a code enforcement violation.

Commissioner Bill Braswell said by phone Friday despite the county’s best efforts to communicate the changes to the trash collection program, there are a small number of residents who never hear about changes to the rules.

“People were used to putting out entire trees or, you know, an oak tree cut into three pieces," he said. "Really huge items that were not meant to be on the side of a curb, for a yard waste truck to pick it up.”

“And the county, unfortunately, got in the habit of, ‘well, we'll send the claw truck to go out there and pick it up this time’ and then do that every time,” Braswell added. “And people began to expect that’s the service they were paying for when in fact it was always supposed to be a small amount.”

Braswell said it was getting to the point where it was unmanageable, and the county had to restrict it to something haulers could handle in a day and get out.

Polk County provides household, yard waste, bulk waste, and currently recycling but that is likely to be discontinued next fiscal year.

Trash collection has been a sore spot for thousands of county residents since the COVID pandemic began and the county declared a state of emergency at one point. Homes had their recycling service suspended in Feb. 2022 as a measure to help with the chronic trash collection issue. That move had freed up trucks and workers to empty overloaded garbage cans because haulers were missing routes.

As was evident in recent years, haulers cannot provide enough trucks to get it done, Braswell said.

"It’s another reason we are taking over more of our garbage trips with leased trucks in the southwest corner of the county,” he said.

Everything south of Route 60 will be hauled by county trucks, he said.

“Me personally, I look forward to the day when the county does all the garbage collection,” Braswell said. “I don’t know if that is a practical hope because it’s a big company in of itself if we did it all.

He added, “Again, if you want to control something, you have to do it yourself.”

The change in yard waste rules was another step toward improving waste collection services.

According to Dale Henderson, director of waste and recycling for Polk County, there are instances where residents have piles of vegetation that is significantly larger than normal. He said he has visited Holder’s residence to assess the situation there.

“What Don Holder had was he's got a giant bird of paradise plant,” he said. “I went out and took a look at it and the root ball is the size of a small Volkswagen.”

The county has a program designed to handle what Henderson called normal vegetation or yard waste from a from a typical household, he said. Or a contractor can break down a large tree or larger piles.

“The equipment that the solid waste department deploys isn't necessarily the proper equipment that an urban forestry outfit would use to handle large pieces,” Henderson said. “That's one option.”

For large trees or piles of yard waste, the county has a list of contractors that residents can call, and they are listed on a website.

Currently, there are three different trash haulers collecting waste in Polk County.

The Polk County Commission unanimously approved two contracts for trash collection in June that total $39.2 million for the first year. The agreements take effect Oct. 1, 2024, and will run for five years.

The county will pay GFL Solid Waste Southeast $22.3 million the first year to cover Service Area 2, which covers about 65,000 dwelling units in Northeast Polk County.

The board also approved a contract with FCC Environmental Services Florida to collect solid waste in Service Area 1, which covers roughly the same number of units in Northwest Polk County. The company will receive $16.9 million in the first year.

Both agreements begin after the current contracts expire and run through Dec. 31, 2029. The contract amounts can be adjusted annually, County Manager Bill Beasley said, and each agreement may be extended for up to three years.

Some of the decisions made last year were before Henderson started as waste director, but decisions about recycling are still being debated and offer great opportunities for the county.

“Recycling is not really being done anymore,” he said. “So, because of that, everything goes to the landfill.”

Henderson said the landfills can become revenue generating.

In decades to come, there could be a need to mine for plastic or aluminum from the landfill and that could help offset the costs of running the landfill.

“The commissioners made this decision to forego residential curbside collection,” he said.

Still, residents who want to recycle will have a private subscription service as an option and drop off sites are anticipated in the near future, in addition to some communities that already have drop-off sites. But there are already options being planned or have been ongoing. For example, the county currently recycles concrete and natural gas could be next.

Construction is underway for a facility to collect natural gas and then inject it into a pipeline, Henderson said.

“That's a program that will be a cutting-edge technology,” he said. “It's going to be a huge benefit obviously to the community and it's going to be a great asset for our Polk County landfill.”

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk County yard waste and bulk items pickup changes spark ire