Columbia County, FL Trash & Recycling: Collection Schedule (2026)

Columbia County Code Chapter 90, Article III, Division 2 requires the Board of County Commissioners to establish and provide a county curbside garbage pickup program for the entire unincorporated area of the county under section 90-113(a). Section 90-113(f) then makes participation mandatory: 'each and every user' located within the board-designated curbside garbage pickup area must participate in the program and pay all associated user fees when due, unless the county has granted an exemption. The pickup area itself is not the whole county; section 90-112 separately defines an 'urban county area' by township and range and a 'rural county area' covering everything else, and the curbside pickup area can include any residential user in the urban area plus any nonresidential user anywhere in the unincorporated county.

User fees are set based on factors listed in section 90-113(c), including the class of user, the amount and type of garbage generated, actual collection and administrative costs, and the county's landfill operating and tippage costs, and the program is required to be self-supporting. The board may contract the actual pickup out through a franchise agreement with an independent hauler, which prescribes the method, frequency, times, and places of collection under section 90-113(e). A user who does not participate or pay can be added to the county's non-ad valorem assessment roll under section 90-115, with a 30 percent surcharge added to the unpaid amount, or referred to the county code enforcement board under section 90-116, which treats nonparticipation as a civil infraction rather than a criminal violation.