Manatee makes changes to garbage schedule

Beginning Memorial Day, May 25, 2009, the make-up schedule for garbage pickups in unincorporated Manatee County will be changed from a Saturday make-up schedule to a sliding schedule.

Under this new schedule, when a holiday falls on Monday, residents with recycling or garbage pickup will receive service on Tuesday. Those residents with service on Tuesday will receive service on Wednesday. All yard waste pick-up will then occur on Thursday. Thursday’s pick-ups will be on Friday and Friday’s will be on Saturday. The next week service will return to normal.

When a holiday falls on a day other than Monday, the same type of schedule will be followed beginning the day of the holiday through Saturday, with the schedule returning to normal on the Monday following the holiday. This is known as a sliding-schedule. This schedule will apply to all holidays.

The change is being made as a result of the Saturday make-up schedule being problematic in several ways. First, per ordinance, Manatee  is required to provide twice weekly service with at least two days between collections. For Monday/Thursday customers, changing the collection day to Saturday leaves only one day between collections and for the Tuesday/Friday customers service is provided two consecutive days and then not again for five days.

Second, Saturday collections have been documented as being substantially less than a normal day’s collection allowing for the haulers to perform the collection in less time altering the time trucks pass through a community, resulting in customers who placed their garbage out for collection after the hauler had passed, calling on Tuesday reporting a missed pick-up. Often, the garbage is left at the curb until the next scheduled pick-up, causing poor aesthetics in the community.

As service providers, the schedule allows us to provide more efficient service while ensuring a beautiful community for our residents.

For more information, contact the Solid Waste Coordinator, 792-8811, Ext. 5206, or click on the Utilities tab at www.mymanatee.org.