Auburndale defines the word trash. It does it in a code section, Sec. 11-1, with a list of what trash is and then a list of what it is not.
What People Ask Once the Definition Sinks In
Doesn't the city give me six cubic yards a week?
What about the blue cart?
Will the city take it at all?
Is this different in the county part of 33823?
Auburndale Collects Its Own Garbage, Which Is Why the Definition Is So Precise
Plenty of cities this size contract collection out. Auburndale does not. Its Public Works Sanitation Division runs residential collection, bulk and yard debris in-house, out of a yard on Charles Avenue, and it says on its own page that if you are a Polk County resident and not a city one, your services are handled by the county instead.
That is the whole explanation for the sentence in section one. A city that hires a hauler writes a contract. A city that owns the trucks writes a definition, because the definition is what its own crews are dispatched against. When Auburndale excluded concrete, plaster, roofing materials, earth, and anything arising from repairs, lot clearing, or building operations from the word "trash," it was not drawing a legal line for its own sake. It was telling its own drivers what to leave at the curb.
Which is also why the exclusions are so specific
The list reads like something written by people who had been handed the load. Wallpaper. Plaster. Large limbs. Earth. Those are not abstract categories. They read like the things that once turned up on a truck.
And why the city can be the right first call
The same division that wrote the rule runs the paid bulk service that is the exception to it. One number reaches both: Auburndale Public Works, (863) 965-5511. If your pile is modest and you are willing to sort it into the stacks the city asks for, that call may be the better answer, and we would rather you made it.
Where the material actually ends up
At a county facility, on a commercial account. Worth knowing for one reason: the county's transfer station on K-Ville Avenue is open to Polk County residents, city addresses included, and takes cars, small trucks, and small trailers. It is a route open to you and closed to us. If your load genuinely fits in your own truck, that is a real option, and it is worth the Saturday morning.
How It Gets Priced
Volume, and then weight
Standard construction debris starts at a $300 minimum for the first four cubic yards. Concrete, block, masonry, and dirt are quoted at the heavy-material rate with a $500 minimum because they are priced by their weight on the scale, not by the space they take in the trailer. Beyond the minimums, it is quoted per project as a written per-project number covering labor, equipment, and disposal.
What is not in scope, and why we say so early
Notice that the city's own sorting categories stop where they do. Large yard debris, furniture, construction and demolition materials, appliances, tires, lumber. Nothing hazardous appears on that list, and nothing hazardous goes in our trailer either: no asbestos, no wet paint, no chemicals, no pressurized tanks. Older tear-out that may contain asbestos or lead is first tested and abated by a licensed contractor, and we haul the clean debris afterward.
The Polk Services Standard, on every load
Donny walks the job with you before he leaves, rakes the work area clean before he drives off, texts you 30 minutes before arrival, and gives you both a verbal and a written quote up front. No sub-crews, no surprise pricing, and the site left ready for whatever comes next.
Paying for it
Cash, check, card, and electronic payment accepted. No processing fee on cash or check; Donny states the card fee when he quotes. Auburndale job sites book around the trade that follows, so Donny asks who is coming next before he sets the day.
For a Few Days a Year, the City Has Taken All of It
Auburndale has run a Spring Clean-Up Week in which city residents get extra trash and garbage services at no additional charge, with material set at the curb in separate stacks. The accepted list is the interesting part, because it names what the ordinary rules exclude. The current posting lists a construction category of painted or treated lumber, tile, concrete, carpet, drywall, and fencing, alongside yard waste, furniture, white goods, and tires, capped at six per household. Hazardous waste and paint are not collected and go to the county's hazardous materials facility in Winter Haven.
Three things before you plan around it. The list has moved year to year, and an earlier posting named dock wood and landscape timber and excluded electronics as well, so read the current one before you plan. The city publishes this as a one-time event, not as a standing program, so we are describing what it has done, not promising what it will do. And it runs in spring, which is no help in September. Auburndale Public Works (863) 965-5511 has the current answer.
If the week is a long way off or the timing does not work, that is what the trailer is for.
