The new year will come with a new garbage and recycling program in unincorporated Orange County.

Orange County approved the new program on Tuesday. It includes a new garbage can for residents -- and reducing collection from twice a week to once a week.

That means if Leo Wheeler doesn’t put his trash out before six in the morning on trash day he will be out of luck, at least for next seven days.

“The only thing that if you forget to bring out your trash can that day that you have to wait another week for them to come out, as opposed to if you miss it on Tuesday, then you can just bring it out on Friday. That’s just the biggest thing,” said Wheeler, who lives in Avalon Park.

The new automated garbage and recycling collection plan will affect about 205,000 households -- anyone not within a city's limits whose trash is collected by the county.

Workers will no longer pick up your trash and recycling by hand. Instead new trucks will be outfitted with a mechanical arm.

Residents get one 95-gallon wheeled cart for garbage and one for recycling.

“It’s three cans worth of garbage you can put in this one can and you put it out," said Solid Waste Division manager Jim Becker. "All the cans are the same all the way down the street, they don’t leak, they don’t let litter fly out. It gives a real aesthetic improvement to the community when we go to automated collection.”

County leaders said the program is also aimed at getting more people to recycle because you no longer have to sort your papers and your plastics. You can put everything that’s recyclable into one recycling cart.

“In the communities that have switched to this 95 gallon cart and 1-1-1 collection, they report to us that they’ve experienced about a 40 percent increase in the amount recycled materials collected,” Becker explained.

By updating technology and being more efficient, county leaders said the plan will save about $8 million a year, which breaks down to about $40 per household. Garbage trucks will also switch to natural gas.

“If we can save in that way then it’s a benefit for me,” Wheeler said.

Trash Collection Fact Sheet

  • County-issued Garbage and Recycling Roll Carts: Leading up to the start of the program on January 1, 2016, homeowners will begin receiving their new, official Orange County roll carts to use for garbage and recycling collection. Due to the large distribution effort required, roll carts and informational materials will be delivered between October and December; however, homeowners may only begin using the roll carts when the program officially begins January 1, 2016. Each home will receive two black 95-gallon roll carts. The blue lid roll cart is for recycling and the green lid roll cart is for garbage. Each roll cart will be outfitted with a barcode unique to each homeowner’s address. The barcode will allow County officials to locate any lost or stolen roll carts and return them to the correct homeowner.
  • Once the program begins, homeowners will no longer be permitted to use their personally-purchased cans for garbage or their County-issued orange and green recycling bins. Homeowners are encouraged to keep their garbage cans for yard waste collection and their recycling bins for other household purposes. Residents may call the Solid Waste Hotline at 407-836-6601 to arrange for pick up and recycling of any unwanted recycling bins.
  • Recycling: Homeowners will no longer need to separate their recyclables or be limited to the smaller recycling containers. The new recycling process will allow residents to discard their recycled items together into the large County-issued roll cart with the blue lid for collection. The same items accepted in the bins can be placed in the roll cart.
  • Bulky Item Collection: Beginning with the official launch of automated curbside collection on January 1, 2016, when discarding of large, bulky items, homeowners will need to schedule a day for up to three cubic yards of item(s) to be collected by calling the Solid Waste Hotline at 407-836-6601. Bulky, large items include furniture, appliances, mattresses, automobile tires (limit 4), rear-projection televisions, and other items that don’t fit in the roll garbage cart.

Roll Cart Information and Distribution:

  • Roll cart distribution: Roll carts will be delivered to homes between October and December and homeowners will not need to be home to receive them. The roll carts must be used beginning on January 1, 2016. Until then, the roll carts should be stored.
  • Size of roll carts: Homeowners will receive two County-issued 95-gallon roll carts, one for garbage and the other for mixed recyclables. After using the 95-gallon roll carts for at least 90 days, residents may swap out the roll cart for a smaller 65-gallon roll cart between April 1, 2016 and May 31, 2016, at no charge by calling the Solid Waste Hotline at 407-836-6601. Roll cart size changes after May 31, 2016, will incur a charge equivalent to the cost of a roll cart.
  • Homeowners who are disabled and are unable to take the roll cart to the curb, may apply for rear-door service. Those who qualify will receive this service at no charge.