Get ready for some change.

City to phase in weekly pickup for both recycling, trash

Starting in May, garbage and recycling will be collected once a week in Orlando.

Starting in May, residents across Orlando will see their weekly garbage collection days halved and their recycling pickups doubled as the city tests a new solid waste schedule that Mayor Buddy Dyer’s staff hopes to make permanent citywide.

The new schedule would see trash and recycling each collected once a week. Currently, garbage is picked up twice a week in the city, while recycling is collected once every other week.

Orlando began testing the changes a year ago in seven neighborhoods, including Baldwin Park and Audubon Park. Though some complained of bad smells and overflowing bins, officials say the test was a success.

"It went very well,” said Mike Carroll, the city’s solid waste manager. “There were obviously some concerns at the very beginning … [but] by the time three or four weeks were gone, it was quiet as a mouse.”

Yet, some residents remain unhappy with the change.

“My concern is in the summer, when the heat is so bad that that garbage sits out there for a week,” said Linda Gervasi of Bobolink Lane in Audubon Park. “I don’t think that’s very sanitary.”

At a workshop Monday, Carroll briefed commissioners on plans to expand the test to the rest of the city in three phases over six months.

The first, expected to start May 1, will cover much of northwest Orlando, including College Park and Parramore. Starting June 26, Phase 2 would add much of southwest and southeast Orlando, including Holden Heights and Lake Nona. The rest of the city will follow Aug. 21.

Even if the citywide test is successful, permanently changing the collection schedule would require City Council approval, likely this summer. On Monday, commissioners spoke about the change favorably.

“There’s going to be some folks that are upset about it, but I think when we explain the logic behind it … people will be more accepting of it,” said Commissioner Patty Sheehan.

Carroll also recommended that commissioners waive a 4 percent increase in collection rates scheduled to take effect in October, due in part to the expected cost savings of fewer garbage pickups.

Dyer’s administration has said the changes were prompted by demand from residents for more frequent recycling collection. The altered schedule is also seen as a way to encourage residents to recycle.

During the seven-neighborhood, 4,200-home pilot, 242 homes started recycling that hadn’t been doing it before, according to the city.

The test has especially proved tricky for some in Baldwin Park, where residents are required to keep trash cans in their garages.

“There is no outside area that’s ours, so our trash has to stay in our garage all week,” said resident Mark Raphaelson. “It does get warm, especially in the summer. We can no longer use our garage for exercise or anything like that.”

Carroll said residents can prevent smells and other sanitary issues by tying their trash bags tight, using odor-fighting sprays and hosing out bins.

But Baldwin Park resident Jack Berger of Enders Street said, “I continue to have neighbors who only have the one garbage can and, on the day of service … their can is filled and overflowing, with extra bags of garbage on the ground.”

The city has also received positive feedback from residents who said the recycling increase is long overdue. Trash and recyclables are already each picked up once weekly in Orange, Osceola and Lake counties.

Dan Dansby of Crescent Park in southeast Orlando was excited to learn his neighborhood will be be added. A conservationist, he said it’s recyclables that pile up at his home between pickups, not trash.

“The garbage twice a week is overkill if you’re recycling properly,” he said. “I really don’t think you need that.”