Harris County Storm Debris Pickup and Guidelines
Harris County Storm Debris Pickup
Harris County debris removal is underway. The most important thing residents can do to ensure the process runs quickly and efficiently is to follow storm debris guidelines by separating and placing debris in the appropriate area.
- Separate vegetative debris, such as tree branches and plants, from construction and demolition debris, as they will be collected separately.
- Do not bag debris. Only loose debris will be collected.
- Do not place debris near drainage ditches, storm drains, mailboxes, water meters, fire hydrants, low-lying limbs, or any other above-ground utility such as transformers and power lines.
- Only debris placed in the appropriate area will be eligible for collection. If all debris is not picked up during the first pass, continue to push remaining debris closer to the curb for collection on future passes.
- Regular household trash should be disposed of with the regular collection of garbage. Spoiled food items should be thrown out in the regular trash, never mixed with storm or construction debris.
GFL Storm Debris Cleanup Guidelines
All Customers – Non -Franchise Cities
As you know, the hurricane left a lot of destruction and debris throughout the Houston area. As we began our collection routes in the aftermath of the storm, our goal was to prioritize and ensure that all regular household waste was collected. We also felt that we would be able to collect up to our normal heavy trash/yard waste amounts. Due to the sheer amount of debris left from the storm, this proved to be very difficult. We were able to ensure that all regular household garbage, or Residential Waste, was collected this week with some areas delayed into the following days. Our collection routes have, and will continue to, experience drastically increased wait times at area landfills, increased delays on normal route schedules due to increased volumes of normal household garbage and beginning to collect bagged debris items.
Beginning Monday, July 15, all weekly regular garbage and recycling collection services will be running as scheduled. We will continue to make every effort possible to ensure your services are collected as scheduled, however delays may occur during the aftermath of this storm. If you do not receive your normal collection on your scheduled day, please be advised that we will provide service the following day.
To ensure that all Houston area residents receive essential household garbage collection, we must place some limitations on select services. We will collect your regular household garbage, however bagged items including grass/yard clippings will be limited to 3 bags on each scheduled heavy trash collection day. Any bagged items leftover will be collected on the next scheduled heavy trash collection day. Any loose storm debris including vegetative waste or building materials should be separated from regular garbage items. All loose storm debris material will be collected separately. Please reach out to your local City, County, or HOA for information on storm debris collection.
We will re-evaluate these guidelines after 2 weeks to determine if normal collections can resume.
We understand that this hurricane event has caused many disruptions in our everyday lives, and we appreciate your patience and understanding as we continue to make every effort possible to resume normal collections.