Does your household roll more than one big, green garbage bin out to the curb every week? Not for long.
Key West is cracking down on trash pickup. In the coming weeks and months, any household that needs more than one green, rolling bin for its trash will be charged $295 a year.
The city of Key West recently negotiated a new contract with WM (formerly Waste Management), which includes rate increases based on the total weight of the garbage that’s collected.
“So now, households that generate more garbage need to pay for the extra weight they discard,” Key West Utilities Director Matt Willman said last week. “We wanted to keep things fair, so instead of imposing an across-the-board rate increase that penalizes everyone, this way, the households that generate more waste are the ones being charged for its removal.”
Households that use the one green bin and the one recycling bin that WM provides to each residential unit will not see any changes to their trash collection.
Every recognized residential unit in the city gets one 96-gallon, green rolling garbage bin and one 64-gallon blue recycling bin that will be emptied once a week, Willman said.
“A lot of the transient and vacation rental properties have been the biggest abusers of the former system, but not necessarily knowingly or intentionally,” Willman said. “The renters typically just put out as many bins each week as they have access to. And as we all know, many households have somehow acquired more than one green bin over the years.”
They paint their address number on it, and it becomes theirs. And up until recently, WM would empty as many of those bins as were on the curb each week.
Sticky situation
“Of the 14,500 residential accounts in the city, I’d guess that 30 to 50% of them have more than one green and/or blue bin,” Willman said.
But that’s now changing.
WM staff, equipped with a database from the city, now will know which addresses have paid the extra $295 per additional green bin. When they encounter more than one green bin at an address that hasn’t paid for any extras, workers have started placing bright yellow stickers on any extra bins. They’ll still empty those stickered bins that week. But as the sticker states, the following week, that bin will be removed from the property and extras can be obtained for $295 per year per extra bin.
“We’re just trying to be fiscally responsible and not raise the rates for everyone across the board,” Willman said, adding that the emphasis initially is on the green garbage bins, and not the blue recycling containers, as the city does not want to do anything that could discourage recycling efforts.
Yard waste disposal changes
Each household is entitled to weekly removal of up to 400 gallons of yard waste, typically composed mainly of palm fronds, leaves and grass clippings.
Each household is entitled to weekly removal of up to 400 gallons of yard waste, BUT it cannot be placed in the green or blue bins.
“It has technically never been allowed in the green and blue containers, but it was tolerated in the past,” Willman said. “We can’t afford to tolerate that any more.”
Residents must provide their own yard waste containers — either those giant paper bags, or large rubber trash cans available at home improvement stores.
Bulk items stay the same
E household is still entitled to two free bulk pickups each year. Such pickups can be scheduled by calling WM or the city’s utilities department or by using the Key West Connect phone app. Such pickups are typically needed to dispose of furniture, appliances and other large items.
The city and WM are finalizing a new educational brochure that will be mailed to all residents offering reminders about yard waste and recycling protocols.
“We’re here to help at the utilities department, and we want people to know we’re working hard to keep rates low,” Willman said.
He said he and the city’s utilities department are available to answer questions and accept payment for extra trash bins. For a breakdown of the rules, visit cityofkeywest-fl.gov. From the city’s home page, click on City Departments > Utilities Department > Solid Waste Management or call 305-809-3906.
