As of Oct. 1, residents in unincorporated Hillsborough County need to be aware of new rules regarding how much solid waste and yard waste they can take for free to the Solid Waste Management Department facilities. The changes have occurred to prevent misuse of resident’s free unlimited disposal rights, as a result of residents who are operating commercial operations without paying commercial disposal fees.

The changes will affect residents taking materials to all Community Collection Centers, Yard Waste Processing Facilities and the Southeast County Landfill. At the Community Collection Centers, residents will be limited to bringing in ten cubic yards of solid waste material a year, which is equivalent to the material that can be put into a vehicle pulling a double-axle trailer or a loaded box/straight truck. A loaded pick-up truck generally only carries about two cubic yards for comparison.

At the yard waste processing facilities and the Southeast Landfill, which uses scales to weigh vehicles entering, the limits will be 2.25 tons of material a year at the landfill and five tons a year at the yard waste processing facilities. 2.25 tons is roughly equivalent to ten cubic yards of material.

These limits do not apply to curbside residential trash, recycling and yard waste disposal, so residents can continue to place as much as they are allowed at curbside, without that amount affecting their annual disposal limits at the facilities.

The annual limits will be tracked by the residents’ property folio numbers, which will be input by staff in a computer system from the tax bill that all residents have to show when they arrive at Solid Waste Management Department facilities. Staff will be able to see each folio numbers’ total amount each time that residents drop off materials and will notify residents if they are approaching the limit. Staff also will be able to see the totals of drop-offs at all facilities, to ensure that residents are not visiting various facilities to circumvent the rules.

The Solid Waste Management Department has been researching this issue for the last 18 months, after noticing certain residents regularly dropping off large amounts of materials and claiming it was only material from their property. The department also has researched the average amount of materials that residents drop off at the facilities, and feel that the limits should far exceed the amount of material that residents normally drop off.

If residents exceed the allowed amount during the year, they will be required to pay standard commercial disposal charges, or tipping fees. Those are $39.79 per ton for non-processable materials, such as appliances, furniture, and minor residential construction debris, and $29.75 per ton for yard and wood waste. Also for non-processable materials, they will have to take the over-limit materials directly to the Southeast County Landfill.

An exception to this new rule is those residents who live on roads that the County’s trash hauler vehicles can not drive down. Those residents have special waivers to take the amount of material that they could have left at curbside to the County’s facilities.

The County’s Solid Waste Disposal Facilities are located at:

• Southeast County Landfill, 15960 C.R. 672, Balm
• South County Community Collection Center, 13000 U.S. Hwy 41 South, just north of Big Bend Road
• Alderman Ford Community Collection Center, 9402 S.R. 39
• Hillsborough Heights Community Collection Center, 6209 C.R. 579
• Northwest County Community Collection Center, 8001 W. Linebaugh Ave.
• Resource Recovery Facility (yard waste only), 350 N. Falkenburg Rd.

If residents have any questions or concerns about these new rules, they can call the Solid Waste Management Department at (813) 272-5680.

Beginning October 1, the Office of Neighborhood Relations staff will be reduced from five to two employees. We’re sorry to hear this news since the ONR has helped Wildewood secure several grants during the past few years. These grants paid for our bulletin board and lighting, drip-irrigation, and the dumpster clean-up event. To the staff, for all their help, we offer a hearty “thank you”.

Attorney General Bill McCollum and the statewide inter-agency mortgage fraud task force are hosting a public meeting on Saturday, August 15th in Tampa to address housing issues, answer questions, provide information on available resources, take complaints, and provide free legal advice from volunteer lawyers.

Event participants include the Florida Attorney General’s Office, Florida Office of Financial Regulation, Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, The Florida Bar, State Attorneys Office for the 13th Judicial Circuit, Hillsborough County Clerk of the Court, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Offices, Bay Area Legal Services, and many other community organizations.

Saturday, August 15th from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm
Stetson University Law School
1700 North Tampa Street, Tampa

Call toll-free 877-385-1621, to reserve your seat today. Download the information flyer [PDF].