Be ready to pay if you overfill your Fort Worth trash or recycling cart. Here’s the fee
Fort Worth is adding a fee to residents’ garbage bills to cover the cost of overflowing trash and recycle bins.
It’s one of several new fees approved by the City Council in September going into effect Jan. 1.
Fort Worth will charge residents $6 per for each overloaded trash or recycling cart, and $3 for loose bags left on the side of the road.
The city will consider carts overloaded if the lid is not securely closed. Garbage bags not securely loaded into your can will be considered loose.
If a can lid is broken, the city is instructing residents to reach out to its call center at 817-392-1234 to get it repaired within 48 hours.
The new fees are intended to cover the city’s cost when it comes to extra bags and overflowing bins.
Fort Worth already has rules against overloading garbage cans and leaving out extra bags, but the only enforcement mechanism has been to send out a citation.
Most of the time the city’s contractor, Waste Management, collects the extra trash and charges the city for each instance.
This new system will add the fine to a resident’s monthly garbage bill, which is a part of their monthly water bill.
Residents can dispute the charges, however, the city is using cameras and special software to determine whether a cart was overflowing or a resident left an extra bag out next to their bin.
