Are your garbage cans starting to look worse for wear? Can’t remember whether plastic bottles go in the blue bin or the green bin? If you live in Hillsborough County’s Solid Waste service area, help is on the way.
Improved residential garbage and recycling collection service — with sturdy roll carts to be provided by the County — will begin in September. Sun City Center, however, is on a different schedule, with their new service to start in January 2014.
Starting Aug. 1, gray roll carts for garbage and blue roll carts for recycling will be delivered to more than 260,000 homes. Residents will need to store their carts until the new service begins. Also, residents are encouraged to read the important information that will be delivered with the carts. This will include cart instructions, collection days, and service provider information.
When the new service starts, the carts will be emptied by automated collection, a process that uses a mechanical arm on the collection vehicle instead of workers lifting cans and bins by hand. An automated system keeps neighborhoods cleaner and neater on collection days, increases recycling rates, and is safer for service providers.
Though collection days and service providers may change, the improved service will still include two garbage pickups every week, one recycling collection every week, and one yard waste collection every week. Yard waste will still be collected manually in containers and cans provided by residents, or in bags and bundles.
According to a news release from Hillsborough County, residential solid waste customers will pay less for service in 2014, as a result of the County’s efforts to seek new bids for garbage and recycling collection. Altogether, the County will save nearly $10 million annually while still keeping twice-a-week pickups.
For more information about the improved collection service, visit www.HillsboroughCounty.org/TalkTrash, or call the Hillsborough County Public Utilities Department at 813-272-5680.
