POLK COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Recycling pickup is suspended for 79,000 Polk County homes as some residents say trash pickup is causing animal infestations in their neighborhoods.
In the four years living in his south Lakeland home, John Gibson never had an animal problem. In recent months, however, he started having to chase raccoons away from his yard.
Then he heard something scurrying around in his attic.
“I ended up with a rat problem that I had to have extricated from my attic,” he said.
He hired Dustin Hooper, from All Creatures Wildlife Control, to remove the rats, which can carry disease and pose a health risk.
“The last three to four months I’ve been getting more calls for rats than I ever have,” said Hooper. “The last thing you want is rats in your attic, or possums or raccoons. All three of those animals carry diseases.”
Hooper says trash pickup delays are partly to blame, as animals are attracted to the smell of trash sitting on the curb for days, if not weeks.
“You leave trash piled up, you’re gonna draw out the animals, period. There’s no gray there. That’s just white and black. You’re gonna draw out the animals,” said Hooper.
Gibson said he paid $1,000 for Hooper to remove the rats, sanitize and seal up his attic. Now, he’s demanding the county do more to fix the problem.
“What I do believe is we don’t have competence trying to solve this,” he said.
The county has been receiving complaints for months about trash sitting out for days and weeks in western Polk County.
The region is serviced by FCC Environmental Services. Waste Management services the other half of the county.
In January, the county sent FCC a letter warning it would take action if the situation did not improve in 30 days. After a brief improvement, the delays again worsened, according to county commissioners.
Last week, county commissioners unanimously declared a state of emergency regarding the trash pickup, which enabled the county manager to take any reasonable action necessary to address the issue.
The county announced Monday it would be suspending recycling pickup for all of FCC’s service area from Feb. 28 through April 1.
“It’s going to help FCC because it’s going to free eight trucks. They have eight trucks dedicated to the recycling every day. Those assets or those trucks are going to be allocated to the collection of garbage,” said Ana Wood, Polk County’s waste and recycling director, who has worked in the waste management industry for 38 years.
Residents should leave their recyclables with their trash on their scheduled pickup day and it will all be taken to the landfill.
Some residents want Waste Management, which covers eastern Polk County with fewer reported issues, to take over some of FCC’s work.
“We met with both haulers and this was the best plan that they put forth to be able to alleviate the issues that we’re facing,” said Wood.
After April 1, recycling pickup will move to every other week, which will make four extra trucks available every week for trash collection.
“After that, they are going to bring more resources, bring more trucks to be able to accommodate. The issue that we have now is there is a supply chain problem and they cannot get trucks immediately,” said Wood.
Wood says FCC also needs time to reassess the efficiency of its routes.
“We are perceived to be kind of slow to react but it’s not that we’re slow. We want to ensure that we give a step and it’s solid, no pun intended, but it’s a solid step that is going to get us to a point that the commissioners want,” said Wood.
Many residents, including Gibson, are fed up with FCC and are demanding county manager Bill Beasley cut ties with the Texas-based company.
“He’s got to either change the contract and make it advantageous for someone to come here and do the work, or hire someone that’s in existence to expand their business to come here and do the work,” said Gibson.
Wood says the county has looked into it.
“We have reached out to other companies and the companies are saying no, they have the same issues in other areas. They don’t have the capacity to come here and just come in and take over the situation,” said Wood.
As part of the county’s temporary emergency plan, bulk waste should be put at the curb on your household garbage collection day. The county will temporarily suspend the 72-hour collection process and focus on collecting bulk waste as part of regular garbage routes until further notice.
Residents setting out bulk waste should expect collection on their scheduled garbage collection day. The two bulk item per week policy remains in effect. Yard waste collection service will go unchanged.
FCC Environmental Services did not return News Channel 8’s request for comment.
