​Commissioner Hal Valeche

Now that we are in the 2019 hurricane season, I want to share with you some helpful information from the Solid Waste Authority (SWA) to assist you in your efforts to keep your yard vegetation trimmed to minimize property damage and keep our communities safer in the event of a storm.
To ensure your yard is as prepared as possible:

• Cut back trees and weak branches that could hit buildings.
• Thin out foliage so that wind can flow freely through branches, decreasing the chance of uprooting trees or plants.
• Containerize small pieces of vegetation in bags or cans weighing less than 50 pounds when full, and place at the curb on your scheduled pickup day.
• Clean your yard of any items that could pose a danger to you or your neighbors in hurricane-force winds, such as old lumber and broken lawn furniture, and place them curbside on your bulk waste collection day.
• Place vegetative material from routine maintenance at the curb on your regularly scheduled collection day. Unincorporated Palm Beach County residents may place up to 6 cubic yards – equivalent to 3 standard size refrigerators – at the curb.
• Follow the 6/50 rule: each piece of vegetation cannot exceed 6 feet in length or 50 pounds in weight.

If you are contracting with a lawn care services company for major vegetation trimming, make sure the contractors include the price of debris removal as part of their service.

Keeping vegetation under control can help lessen debris removal post-storm. Last hurricane season, Hurricane Irma left almost 3 million cubic yards of vegetative debris on the ground. It took three months and cost more than $30 million to collect and dispose of it all.
Once a hurricane threatens, residents should refrain from cutting down whole trees or undertaking major yard or construction projects until after the storm passes.

DO NOT place any debris at the curb if authorities issue a Hurricane Watch or Hurricane Warning, because this places a tremendous burden on the collection and disposal processes, and there is not enough equipment or workers to handle additional material before a storm makes landfall.

State of emergency declarations are made to ensure that local governments have ample time, resources, and flexibility to get prepared for a storm, and are not hindered, delayed or prevented from taking all necessary actions to keep communities safe.
The SWA works with the Palm Beach County Emergency Management Operations Center to monitor a storm's potential path to determine any facility closures or cancelled garbage, recyclables and yard waste collections in the unincorporated parts of the county. Every resident plays a role in helping in the efficient removal of debris leading up to, and after a storm.

For additional information on debris collection in unincorporated parts of the county, contact SWA Customer Information Services at 561-697-2700 or toll-free at 866-792-4636, or visit www.SWA.org/Hurricane. Residents living within city boundaries should call their local municipality for collection guidelines.

The SWA is a dependent special district created by the Florida Legislature in 1975. The Board of County Commissioners sits as SWA's Board. The Authority has developed an award-winning integrated solid waste management system to handle the county's waste and recyclables. Each year, they process almost 90,000 tons of recyclables, burn approximately 1.8 million tons of trash to generate electricity at renewable energy facilities, and produce enough energy to power 74,000 homes.

As always, please contact me if I can be of assistance at (561) 355-2201, or by email at hvaleche@pbcgov.org.