Solid Waste FAQs
According to City Ordinance Section 26-166, The department will provide one (1) ninety-five-gallon solid waste and one (1) ninety-five-gallon recycling cart for each residence with an active City of Tampa Solid Waste residential account.
The rate is $16.44 per cubic yard for acceptable items. You can place the items curbside and call Customer Service at (813) 274-8811 or contact us at www.tampa.gov/solidwaste to request this service. The items will be collected and your City of Tampa utility account bill will be charged.
A standard household oven is about 1 cubic yard in size (3’ by 3’ by 3’). Three trash bags full of yard debris would be roughly 1 cubic yard. The large garbage can that the city provides fills to approximately 1/2 of a cubic yard.
Most of our pickup requests are less than 4 cubic yards.
Please visit www.tampa.gov/solidwaste or call 813-274-8811
Visit www.tampa.gov/recycling and download the Tampa Trash and Recycling App for a list of items that can be recycled. No plastic bags!
You can place the garbage curbside and call Customer Service at (813) 274- 8811 or contact us at www.tampa.gov/solidwaste to request an extra pickup. The extra pickup will cost $16.44 per cubic yard. Also, the department provides a SWEEP program service once per year, allowing residents to dispose of acceptable bulky or excess items at no additional charge up to 10 cubic yards. Additional cubic yards may result in extra charges.
Our SWEEP program provides a 10 cubic yard no-cost pickup of extra items that are bulky, heavy, or otherwise do not fit the standard 95-gallon garbage container. We provide the service on a set schedule throughout the year. To determine when we service your neighborhood, please visit www.tampa.gov/sweep
The McKay Bay Waste Resource Management facility can save residents disposal costs while converting garbage into electricity. City residents can dispose of many items at the facility at no additional charge, if they have an active residential solid waste account with the City of Tampa. Click on the link below for more information on what is accepted.
Some charges may apply.
See more information at: www.tampa.gov/mckaybay
In order to provide the best service, and keep our residential rates as low as possible, our department adjusts our personnel schedules during holiday weeks. While we are able to guarantee service to every residence at least once per week, during holiday weeks we cannot guarantee service twice per week.
The city holiday calendar determines our service availability. Though a disproportionate number of holidays affect our Monday service, we provide garbage, recycling, and yard waste on an adjusted schedule for every week of the year for every resident. We enjoy our holiday time off, but for your City of Tampa Solid Waste Department, the holidays mean we will work extra hard throughout the week to make up for days that we do not provide service.
Garbage carts are sometimes lost, damaged, or even stolen. If you discover that your cart is missing, call us at 813-274-8811 / option 3, or visit our website at www.tampa.gov and tell us what happened at the Customer Service Center. We will replace your cart and continue providing service as soon as possible.
Our service times are somewhat consistent, but there are many factors that can change our driver’s routes. Mechanical issues, weather, driver training, new drivers, route revisions, construction, or even schools being in session can have severe impacts on the timing of our service. Please adhere to city code to have your trash out for pickup by 6am, and understand that we may run into delays while providing our usual service. We do not like these delays either, but even worse is missing your trash pickup. If you believe we missed your garbage, recycling, or yard waste, please call us at 813-274-8811 / option 3, or visit our website at www.tampa.gov and tell us what happened at the Customer Service Center.
Our commitment to the citizens of Tampa is to provide safe service for their garbage, recycling, and yard waste. Our drivers will not pick up garbage containers that are overfilled, too close to citizen’s property (vehicles, mailboxes, etc), or contaminated with paint or other household chemical waste. However, it’s possible that our driver overlooked your garbage container, or is running behind the usual schedule. If your garbage has not been serviced by 3pm, please call us at 813-274-8811 / option 3, or visit our website at www.tampa.gov and tell us what happened at the Customer Service Center.
Please visit Hillsborough County Trash and Recycling for a list of sites and accepted materials.
According to City Code Sec. 26-148, It is unlawful for any person to place any solid waste upon the property of another without his/her consent. This includes dog feces.