Hillsborough County, Florida Trash Pickup Schedule & Recycling Rules

States & Cities › Florida › Hillsborough County

Hillsborough County trash pickup: collection days, recycling and bulk waste rules.

Hillsborough County trash pickup in the unincorporated county is run by Hillsborough County Solid Waste Services through three contracted haulers. The gray garbage cart goes twice a week, the blue recycling cart once a week, and yard waste once a week in your own bags or cans. Your days come from the county’s address lookup. What trips people up: Tampa, Temple Terrace and Plant City run their own service, while New Tampa is county territory.

• Who collects: Hillsborough County Solid Waste Services ↗, through its three franchise collectors FCC Environmental Services, Republic Services and WM, for single-family homes in the Hillsborough County Solid Waste Service Area: unincorporated Hillsborough County plus New Tampa, Tampa Palms and Hunter’s Green. Tampa, Temple Terrace and Plant City collect for themselves: City of Tampa Solid Waste ↗, Temple Terrace Sanitation ↗, Plant City Solid Waste ↗
• Your pickup day: depends on your address; Find My Trash & Recycling Schedule ↗ shows your hauler, your days and the next two collection dates
• Holiday changes: no pickup on eight county holidays and no make-up days; service resumes on your next regular collection day; Holiday Curbside Collection Schedule ↗
• Missed pickup: report it in At Your Service ↗ or call 813-272-5680; a day that falls on a county holiday is not a missed pickup
• Contact: Solid Waste Customer Service 813-272-5680, Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; SolidWaste@HCFL.gov; roll cart orders 813-261-0026
• Official website: Hillsborough County: Trash & Recycling ↗

Photo: Downtown Tampa skyline near sunrise, Hillsborough County, Florida. Alvesgaspar, 2013-11-03. CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source. Resized for web.

Hillsborough County trash and recycling pickup schedule

First check who serves your address. Your provider depends on whether you live in a city or in the Hillsborough County Solid Waste Service Area, and the county’s schedule lookup settles it.

The county awarded its Solid Waste Franchise Collection Agreements to three companies on January 31, 2022: FCC Environmental Services, Republic Services of Florida and WM. The lookup names the one that drives your street. Whichever it is, you deal with the county for carts, missed pickups and billing, not the hauler.

For county homes:

• Carts and yard waste go to the curb no earlier than 6 p.m. the evening before and no later than 6 a.m. on collection day.
• Everything must fit inside the cart with the lid closed. You may put out up to two garbage carts and two recycling carts, 3 feet apart and 3 feet from mailboxes, cars, trees, hydrants and poles, with the arrows on the lid toward the street.
• Residents who cannot roll a cart to the curb can apply for free disability back-door collection.
• Apartments, condos, townhomes and mobile home parks are commercial accounts with dumpster service and get no county curbside pickup. Their residents can still use the county’s free drop-offs for hazardous waste, paint, electronics, batteries and recycling with a photo ID showing a county address.
• Collection is mandatory for every single-family home in the service area.

What goes in the Hillsborough County recycling cart

Recycling goes loose in the blue cart: no plastic bags and no bagged recyclables. Everything should be clean, dry and empty. For plastics, the county says to look at the shape, bottles and jugs, not the number in the recycling symbol.

• Yes: flattened cardboard, including pizza boxes; drink and broth cartons with the caps on; paper such as junk mail, magazines, newspaper, paper bags and printer paper, not shredded; flattened paperboard such as cereal boxes, paper egg cartons and paper towel tubes; plastic bottles and jugs with the caps on; metal food and drink cans; glass bottles and jars without lids.
• No: plastic bags, bagged recycling or film; anything with food or liquid in it; foam cups, containers and egg cartons; other plastics such as takeout containers, cutlery, cups and straws; clothing; hoses, cords and cables; yard waste; batteries and electronics.

Cardboard must fit inside the cart; oversized boxes and big loads of recyclables go free to any Community Collection Center, no ID needed. Clean plastic bags and film go back to a supermarket bin.

Yard waste and Christmas trees

Yard waste is collected once a week on the day the lookup gives you. You supply the container: cans, boxes, bags or neat bundles, each under 50 pounds, placed within 6 feet of the curb.

• Limit: 2 cubic yards a week, about twelve 30-gallon containers. In February, March and April the limit rises to eighteen 30-gallon containers or 3 cubic yards of stacked material.
• Size: limbs and branches under 4 feet long and 6 inches across.
• Taken: branches, brush, grass clippings, leaves, palm fronds, shrub and tree trimmings, lumber and wood.
• Refused: varnished, painted or treated wood, and anything with paint, glue or wood preservative on it.
• Excess: residents may self-haul up to 2 tons of yard and wood waste a year to the Northwest County or South County Solid Waste Facility, Monday to Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a photo ID and a copy of the tax bill. Loads mixed with garbage are charged as trash. Free mulch, up to 2 cubic yards, is available at the same two sites.

Live Christmas trees go out on your yard waste day with all decorations, lights and tinsel removed, cut into sections no longer than 4 feet and no thicker than 6 inches, or can be dropped at the Northwest or South County facility. Pre-lit and artificial trees are garbage.

Bulk trash pickup in Hillsborough County

There is no free curbside bulk day. Anything too large for the gray cart goes one of two ways.

• Special curbside pickup for a fee. Call 813-272-5680 before you put anything out; the request must be made first. It costs $30 an item for a mattress of any size, a bed frame and box spring, furniture, a carpet up to 10 by 10 feet, a fence section of 8 feet, a lawn mower without oil or gas, a grill without the tank, a TV under 50 inches, 20 cardboard boxes or 10 bags of trash. It costs $50 an item for a refrigerator, freezer, washer, dryer, dishwasher, oven or stove, water heater, window air conditioner or a TV of 50 inches and up.
• Self-haul to a Community Collection Center. Each county solid waste customer gets 10 cubic yards of free bulky waste and appliance disposal a year at the five centers, counted from October 1; a loaded pickup bed is about 2 cubic yards. Bring a photo ID and a copy of your property tax bill. Everything is unloaded by hand into containers about 4 feet high; no dump trailers. Past 10 cubic yards you pay commercial disposal rates at a transfer station or the Southeast County Landfill.
• Tires: up to 12 a year free at a Community Collection Center; beyond that the Southeast County Landfill charges $12 a passenger tire, $27 with a rim and $22 for an oversized tire.
• Neighborhoods can apply for the Community Cleanup Program, which brings free containers to a street for items regular collection will not take.

Hillsborough County holiday trash schedule

There are no make-up days. When your collection day falls on a county holiday, that pickup is skipped and service resumes on your next regularly scheduled day. A holiday on a Sunday changes nothing. Holidays not on the county’s list get regular collection.

The same rule covers Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day and Labor Day. Facility closures apply to the landfill, the transfer stations, the Community Collection Centers, the yard waste sites and the hazardous waste collections.

Hazardous waste, electronics and drop-off sites

Household hazardous waste never goes in a cart. The county collects it on three Saturdays a month at a rotating site and takes paint, electronics and batteries six days a week at its five Community Collection Centers. Every county resident, including Tampa, Temple Terrace and Plant City residents and renters, can use the hazardous waste collections and the paint, electronics, battery and recycling drop-offs with a state photo ID showing a Hillsborough County address. Bulky waste, tires and general trash at the centers are for county solid waste customers only, with the tax bill as proof. No business waste anywhere.

Household hazardous waste collections, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., closed in severe weather:

• Sheldon Road Household Hazardous Waste Collection Site, 9805 Sheldon Road, Tampa, FL 33635. First Saturday of the month. Hazardous waste and cooking oil only.
• South County Solid Waste Facility, 13000 U.S. Highway 41, Gibsonton, FL 33534. Second Saturday of the month.
• Hillsborough Heights Solid Waste Facility, 6209 County Road 579, Seffner, FL 33584. Third Saturday of the month.

They take lead-acid, rechargeable and lithium batteries, household cleaners and solvents, aerosols, paint, stain, varnish and thinners (10 one-gallon or 5 five-gallon containers a month, sealed), antifreeze, motor oil, gasoline and diesel in containers of up to 5 gallons, pool chemicals, propane and helium tanks and fire extinguishers (five 30-pound tanks or fewer), fertilizers and pesticides, fluorescent tubes and CFLs, mercury thermometers, flares, ammunition and cooking oil. They refuse alkaline batteries (garbage cart), needles, medicines, electronics, explosives and business waste.

Community Collection Centers, Monday to Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.:

• Alderman’s Ford Solid Waste Facility, 9402 County Road 39, Plant City, FL 33567. Collection center and recycling drop-off.
• Hillsborough Heights Solid Waste Facility, 6209 County Road 579, Seffner, FL 33584. Adds cooking oil, donation drop-off and hazardous waste on the third Saturday.
• Northwest County Solid Waste Facility, 8001 W. Linebaugh Avenue, Tampa, FL 33625. Adds a transfer station, yard and wood waste, free mulch, cooking oil and donation drop-off.
• South County Solid Waste Facility, 13000 U.S. Highway 41, Gibsonton, FL 33534. Adds a transfer station, yard and wood waste, free mulch, cooking oil, donation drop-off and hazardous waste on the second Saturday.
• Wimauma Solid Waste Facility, 16180 West Lake Drive, Wimauma, FL 33598. Collection center and recycling drop-off.

All five take paint, electronics, rechargeable and lead-acid batteries, appliances and bulky items, tires, scrap metal and recyclables. Electronics are limited to five intact items a household a month, not counting monitors, keyboards and mice; devices with built-in batteries go here rather than to the Saturday collections. Tape battery terminals and bag each battery separately.

Southeast County Landfill, 15960 County Road 672, Lithia, FL 33547; 813-272-5680. Monday to Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., no hand unloading after 4:30 p.m. Residents use it once their free allowance at the collection centers is used up and pay the commercial rate by weight: $141 a ton for processable waste and $104 a ton for non-processable waste. It takes non-burnable waste such as broken furniture, scrap metal, appliances and tires, but not construction debris, yard waste, liquids or hazardous waste. Roads inside are unpaved and can turn to mud after rain.

Cooking oil goes free into the county’s CORE cabinets at the three larger facilities and at libraries, parks and pump stations around the county. Needles and sharps are handled by the Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County, not the solid waste sites.

Fees and billing

County customers pay no monthly bill. Two non-ad valorem assessments appear on the November property tax bill for the period from October 1 to September 30, under Sections 130-56 and 130-57 of the county code, at the same rate for every home.

• The disposal assessment for a condominium is $134.43. Homeowners 65 and older who apply by July 31 pay a reduced disposal assessment of $139.39 for a house or $87.89 for a condo.
• The 2027 figures on the county’s assessment FAQ add $22 a year for a house, $1.83 a month, a 4.3% increase.
• An extra garbage or recycling cart costs $65 and a swap between the 35, 65 and 95-gallon sizes $20, ordered online, by phone at 813-261-0026 or in person at 332 N. Falkenburg Road, Tampa. Repairs, replacement of damaged carts and the first carts for a new home are free.
• Special curbside bulky pickups cost $30 or $50 an item. Trips to the landfill or a transfer station after the free allowance are charged at the commercial per-ton rates.
• Low-income homeowners can apply each year for the Hardship and Affordability Credit toward the assessments. Unpaid assessments lead to a tax certificate against the property.

Missed pickup, damaged carts and new carts

If your garbage, recycling or yard waste is not collected, report it online in At Your Service ↗ or call 813-272-5680, Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. A collection day that falls on a county holiday does not count as missed; the next regular day covers it.

Broken wheels and axles are repaired free within seven business days, and a cart with a cracked body or broken lid is replaced free in the same size within three business days. Leave the cart at the curb until the work is done and have the serial number ready: G on a garbage cart, R on a recycling cart. A missing cart is reported by phone and may cost $65, as does moving into a home without a cart; a newly built home gets its first carts free.

Set-out rules

• Out between 6 p.m. the evening before and 6 a.m. on collection day, lids closed, nothing on top or beside the cart. Overflow waits for the next pickup or goes to a collection center with your tax bill.
• Book a bulky pickup before the items go out; unbooked bulky items are not collected.
• The gray cart takes household garbage including food waste, windows, mirrors, ceramics, textiles, diapers, hoses, cords, small appliances, incandescent bulbs and alkaline batteries. No hazardous waste, rechargeable batteries or electronics.
• Gated communities should give customer service a gate code so trucks can get in.

Materials with their own rules

• Mattresses: $30 special pickup for any size, or self-haul to a collection center.
• Household hazardous waste: Saturday collections, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., photo ID with a county address.
• Paint: 10 one-gallon or 5 five-gallon containers a month at any collection center or Saturday collection.
• Lithium-ion batteries: tape the terminals and bag each one; collection centers and Saturday collections take them, the carts do not.
• Aerosol cans and propane tanks: aerosols and up to five 30-pound tanks at the Saturday collections.
• Tires: 12 a year free at a collection center, then $12 each at the landfill.
• Christmas trees: yard waste day, cut to 4-foot sections, undecorated.
• Pizza boxes: the blue cart, flattened.

More in Florida

• Florida trash and recycling rules
• Jacksonville trash pickup
• Miami-Dade trash pickup
• Holiday changes by city
• Bulk pickup rules by city
• Missed pickup contacts by city
• Trash service cost by city
• Drop-off locations by city