Trash Dispute: Complaints Made Over Tree Trunk Removal

DEBRIS FROM TREE REMOVALwon't be collected in weekly residential garbage pickup in unincorporated Polk County; that has caused disputes between residents and county officials.

BARTOW | Here's a tip for anyone trying to dispose of yard waste in unincorporated Polk County.

If you put out leaves and brush, they'll be gone on garbage day.

If you put out logs, they won't.

The current garbage contract differentiates between yard trash, which includes shrub and tree trimmings and grass clippings, and land-clearing debris, which includes tree trunks, limbs and stumps.

"The contract has definitions," said Ana Wood, Polk's director of waste and recycling.

But somehow that message hasn't gotten through to some of Polk County's 138,000 residential garbage customers, and complaints and misunderstandings persist, Wood said.

Wood acknowledges that county officials themselves are partly to blame for the misunderstanding.

From 1999 to 2005, Polk had written guidelines for yard trash that contained specific size restrictions.

Those restrictions said material couldn't be more than 5 feet long or 5 inches wide.

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Trash Dispute: Complaints Made Over Tree Trunk Removal