Waste Management will alter its garbage pickup schedule in Cape Coral beginning Monday, but most residents will not be affected.
Changes to the waste pickup schedule were last implemented in January, the first change since 1998, when Waste Management began servicing the Cape.
About 9,400 residents will be affected by the changes. In the area west of Chiquita Boulevard, south of Veterans Parkway and north of Cape Coral Parkway, whose current waste pickup dates were Monday or Tuesday, will now have a Thursday pickup day. Residents living north of Hancock Bridge Parkway and east of Santa Barbara Boulevard will also have their pickup day changed from Thursday to Friday.
Waste Management district manager Todd Peres said the impending changes are an adjustment from the original shakeup in January.
“We just have to make one initial and final change to the schedule. We just want to be a little more consistent in our pickup times,” Peres said.
Residents whose pickup day is slated to change next week should have received a door hanger in the last two weeks notifying them of the switch.
The original changes that combined pickup days of garbage, yard waste and recycling have boosted participation in recycling, Peres said, adding that a migration south is impacting their routes.
“The population really has shifted from the north part of Cape Coral to the south part of Cape Coral,” Peres said.
This should be the last change in garbage pickup times for the foreseeable future, Peres said, despite the Cape’s dynamic boom-bust growth cycle in recent years.
“We evaluate our operations constantly throughout the year,” Peres said, adding that alterations in routes are designed so residents will not be affected.
“We don’t want to continue to have to change what time we’re in peoples’ neighborhoods,” Peres said.
Residents should place their garbage, recycling and yard waste less than three feet from the curb by 6 a.m. on their pickup day.