New trash contractor switch causes missed pickups, schedule confusion

Hernando County’s transition from Republic Services to Coastal Waste & Recycling, which began Jan. 2, produced countywide disruptions in garbage and recycling collection during the busy holiday period. Residents reported missed pickups and uncertainty about new collection days as crews adjusted to increased post-holiday volumes and the logistics of a new contractor.

County officials and Coastal Waste have acknowledged that the week following Christmas and New Year’s is traditionally one of the most challenging for collection because household garbage and recycling volumes rise sharply. Both agencies received complaints about missed service and schedule confusion and have moved to mitigate immediate problems. Coastal Waste added additional staff to handle customer calls and the county opened the landfill earlier to allow Coastal trucks extended collection hours and more trips per day.

Those operational changes are intended to speed recovery of regular routes and clear holiday overflow, but call centers are currently congested. Coastal Waste asks residents to avoid repeated phone calls, which lengthen wait times, and to delay non-essential requests for a few weeks. Items such as cart size exchanges or repairs and replacements of usable carts with only minor damage are being pushed back to prioritize missed pickups and urgent service issues.

Residents should check their new service dates on Coastal Waste & Recycling’s Hernando County service page or the Hernando County Solid Waste & Recycling pages for the most up-to-date schedule information. For assistance, Hernando County Government’s main line remains available at (352) 754-4000.

The disruption highlights practical and policy challenges when local governments change service providers during peak demand periods. Transition planning that explicitly accounts for holiday surges, customer call volumes, and landfill access hours can reduce strain on crews and confusion for residents. The county’s decision to open landfill access early and the contractor’s move to increase staffing address immediate capacity problems but also underline the need for clearer advance communication about service changes and contingency expectations.

Our two cents? Check the new service calendar online, keep carts at the curb on your scheduled day, and hold off on nonurgent cart swaps or small repairs for a few weeks to let crews catch up. That small bit of patience will help prioritize missed pickups and get collection back on track for everyone.