LAKELAND, Fla. — After a month without recycling, those services will resume for people in Polk County on Monday, April 4.
In a news release, county leaders say customers serviced by FCC Environmental Services will begin to see an every-other-week recycling collection. FCC and county leaders agreed to pause recycling collection for one month to allow the company to focus on solid waste collection in the area.
The company hadn't been able to keep up with its contracted collection schedule due to worker shortages and other challenges that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the county.
In February, Polk declared a local state of emergency, saying trash piling up in neighborhoods was a public health hazard.
Now, county leaders are cautiously optimistic FCC can get back on track.
"It's in everybody's best interest that FCC succeeds because the alternative is unacceptable chaos," said Polk County Commissioner George Lindsey.
Commissioner Lindsey says that while reports of trash not being picked up are down, they're far from non-existent.
"It needs to be zero," said County Commissioner George Lindsey. "And if it's not zero, it needs to be expedited the next day to take care of that."
Lindsey said "Plan B," bringing in another company to assist FCC Environmental, remains an option.
"Our County Manager is meeting with the CEO of [FCC Environmental] in two weeks, and that will be part of the discussion; How they're doing thus far, and what we need to do to start addressing Plan B," Lindsey said.
10 Tampa Bay spoke with people who live on Annette Street in Lakeland. They said trash collection services have improved in the last month. Prior to the county taking action, they said it took up to three weeks at times for their trash to be collected.
"It's much much better now," said Kenneth Hudson. "In the past, you could see trash cans up and down the street and now you hardly see any at all."
Hudson said the community's trust with FCC Environmental Services still needs to be rebuilt, but he hopes the newfound consistency is here to stay.
"I'd like to see them just keeping a normal schedule like they have in the past and doing better," said Hudson.
Polk County customers who are serviced by FCC will get letters this week notifying them when their recycling collection will happen — either during Week A or Week B.
Households assigned to Week A will have recycling collected starting on April 4. Those in Week B will see recycling pick-up resuming starting April 11.
From there, collections will happen every other week.
“This is the next step in working through our emergency plan to get waste collection back on track for our customers,” County Manager Bill Beasley said in a statement. “We expect that by alternating recycling collection weeks, FCC will be able to maintain their household waste collection service.”
If you're looking for the most accurate information regarding trash collection, starting March 31 you can enter your street address using this portal.
The county says bulk waste for FCC collection should be put at the curb on your garbage collection day until further notice. And, leaders say the current two-item per week police is still in effect. Yard waste collection is unchanged.
If you notice missed collections, you can report it to the county's Wastewise app, the county's website or by calling customer service at (863) 284-4319.