Port St. Lucie halts recycling beginning Monday; Here's what you need to know

Olivia McKelvey, Treasure Coast Newspapers
·2 min read
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PORT ST. LUCIE — Beginning Monday, recycling will no longer be picked up here.

How long will the suspension last? That remains to be seen.

The City Council Wednesday voted to halt weekly recycling pickup citywide to avert "a public-health crisis."

Why the pause in collecting recycled waste?

The time-out was needed so Waste Pro, which has been under fire for poor service, can catch up on missed garbage collection, city officials said.

What should Port St. Lucie residents do with their recycling bins?

After this week, residents should not take their green recycling bins to the curb. They can hold onto recyclables until service resumes, put them in the trash can or take them to the city's convenience drop-off center, open 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. daily at the corner of Cameo Boulevard and Crosstown Parkway.

Even if residents do put out their recycling carts, Waste Pro will dump them together with regular trash and they won't be recycled, officials said.

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With Waste Pro planning to break its city contract and end service in September, the City Council selected FCC Environmental Services Florida to provide service beginning in September.

With that change, residential garbage collection will be cut from twice weekly to once a week. At the same time, the residential collection rate will jump nearly 50%.

FCC — which picks up trash at about 550,000 homes in Florida — also is a contracted hauler for Orange County, Palm Beach County, Hillsborough County and the cities of Edgewood and Wellington.

Olivia McKelvey is TCPalm's watchdog reporter for St. Lucie County. You can reach her at olivia.mckelvey@tcpalm.com, 772-521-4380 and on Twitter @olivia_mckelvey.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Recyclables in PSL no longer being picked up starting Monday