The Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County’s new garbage collection contract starts tomorrow for unincorporated PBC residents.
If you don’t know if this change impacts you, search the Property Appraisers website for your address. Under “Property Detail,” you will see “Municipality.” If it says “UNINCORPORATED,” this impacts you. If it lists a city, your garbage collection remains as is.
By the end of today (Sept. 30), you should receive your new garbage cart, as the unincorporated collection contract requires all carts to be delivered by then.
However, the SWA is aware that several communities will not have their carts prior to Oct. 1. These communities are being contacted directly and notified as to when to expect them. We also anticipate that there may be some individual homeowners out of the more than 200,000 households where carts were to be delivered that may not have received them.
If you have not received a new SWA garbage cart, please contact SWA Customer Service at 561-697-2700 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or email to carts@swa.org and we will ensure that one is delivered as soon as possible. In the meantime, if you do not have a new SWA garbage cart, simply place your old garbage can at the curb as you have in the past until your cart arrives.
Residents will not be able to exchange their new garbage carts during the first 90 days, with two exceptions:
- If your new cart does not provide enough capacity for the amount of garbage generated at your home. In this case, you may purchase another 96-gallon cart for a onetime fee of $65. To request an additional 96 gallon cart, please email carts@swa.org with your name, address and phone number, and an SWA Customer Service team member will notify your service provider to set you up with your additional 96-gallon cart.
- If you are elderly, disabled or physically unable to maneuver the 96 gallon cart, the SWA will exchange it with a 48 gallon cart.
Please note there are no exchanges from a 48 gallon cart to a 65 gallon cart or a 65 gallon cart to a 48 gallon.
We ask for your patience as these special exchange requests will take time to coordinate and will be fulfilled by your service provider.
To recap what this new collection contract includes:
- Garbage – collection method will be by an automated or semi-automated truck that services your new gray cart twice a week. All garbage must be placed inside the new SWA-provided cart. Carts should be at the curb by 6 a.m. on your regularly scheduled collection day.
- Bulk Waste – provided one day per week, with only 3 items collected (refrigerator, sofa, area rug, etc.)
- Yard Waste (vegetation) – provided one day per week, with only 6 cubic yards allowed at the curb at a time. No longer can unincorporated residents put out larger piles of yard waste.
- Recyclables – the only change is you no longer have to cut your cardboard to size. Just remove the protective packaging (i.e. plastic bags and foam), break the box down, and put it in your yellow recycle bin or neatly stacked between your two recycle bins.
You should have received multiple mailings from your (new) garbage hauler about this service change. One of those mailings should have listed your collection days. To identify your contracted hauler, look for your address on this service map (PDF).
Here are some other important links to help you understand this change:
Overall changes to garbage collection:
Placement of the new garbage cart:
Oct. 1 start:
Yard waste:
