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Garbage Collection Will Not Affect Residents During Holiday Closures
Holiday Recycling Tips
Christmas tree collection service begins December 30, 2019.
In observance of Christ- mas Day and New Year’s Day, City of Tampa offices will be closed on Wednesday, De- cember 25, 2019, and Wednesday, January 1, 2020.
Residential Cus- tomers will not be af- fected by these closures, as there are no Wednes- day collections.
There will be slight changes in Commercial collections.
City residents will receive curbside Christmas Tree Col- lection Service at no addi- tional charge. Christmas tree collection begins Monday, December 30, 2019 and will run through Friday, January 10, 2020.
To take advantage of this service, residents must re- move all decorations and lights, cut tree limbs to four (4) feet lengths, bundle, and place curbside on their regu- larly scheduled yard waste collection day. Any discarded lights and/or decorations should be placed in the garbage cart (not recycling cart).
Customers may contact the City of Tampa Utilities Consolidated Call Center at (813) 274-8811, or visit the website at www.tampagov.net/solid- waste if there are any ques- tions or concerns.
NOTE: New Tampa resi- dents are encouraged to con- tact Hillsborough County Solid Waste Management at (813) 272-5680 for their holiday collection schedule.
The Department of Solid Waste & Environmental Pro- gram Management is provid- ing recycling tips this Holiday to its residential cus- tomers. Tampa residents are encouraged to be mindful of the significant increase in waste generated by the sea- son. The regional, #Recy- cleTheHolidays, social media campaign collaboration be- tween the City of Tampa, Hillsborough County, Pinel- las County and the City of St. Petersburg, encourages edu- cational online visits to www.tampagov.net/Recy- cletheHolidays. The link outlines detailed information on acceptable and unaccept- able items using traditional holiday material examples.
While opening presents, hosting parties, or sending season’s greetings, being good environmental stew- ards is important. Use recy- clable or reused items when possible. Examples of ac- cepted recyclables include plain wrapping paper (no glitter or foil), paper boxes, tissue paper, cardboard boxes, paper cards and en-
MARK WILFALK ...Director, City of Tampa Department of Solid Waste and Environmental Programs
velopes, and clean, empty, dry glass bottles and jars.
Recycling must be placed loose (not bagged) inside your recycling cart for collec- tion. Recycling contamina- tion (unacceptable items) is rejected by our processor be- cause it is dangerous and can shut down the sorting and processing equipment. That means that loads collected by City vehicles along their Tampa routes will not be ac- cepted by the facility, cannot continue the recycling process and must be dis- posed of as waste.
Typical contaminants in- clude plastic bags, clothing, cords, and other items that can become tangled. “Tan- glers,” as those items are called, shut down the recy- cling equipment for 4 hours per day on average.
“As on-line shopping in- creases and residents have more cardboard and other recycling opportunities, we want to be sure that they re- main on Santa’s recycling ‘nice list’ this holiday season. We want to give our cus- tomers every day, environ- mental, educational tips. It is our responsibility,” said Mark Wilfalk, Director. Fortunately, the items that cannot be recycled in the traditional sense, are converted to electricity at the McKay Bay Waste to Energy Facility where Tampa processes waste into energy, powering as many as 15,000 homes annually.pp
Customers may contact the City of Tampa Utilities Customer Center at (813) 274-8811, or visit the website at www.tampagov.net/solid- waste for more information.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2019 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 9