Highlands County, FL Trash & Recycling: Holiday Pickup Schedule (2026)

5-24(a)(5)a bars collection on Sundays except when the county administrator approves a Sunday run to keep a route on schedule, and it bars collection outright on any holiday the county has designated as a county landfill closure day. Rather than skip a customer's pickup for the week, the section moves it: where the regular collection day falls on a holiday, the franchisee must provide service on the next regularly scheduled collection day instead. The county is required to give each franchisee written notice, by August 1 of each year, of every date the landfill will be closed or run reduced hours in the coming fiscal year, so the franchisee can build the shifted schedule in advance.

The franchisee then has to pass that shift down to customers: it must notify every customer whose normal collection day falls on the holiday that no truck will run that day, and it must tell them the actual date their waste will be collected, at least ten days ahead of the holiday, either by direct notice or by publication in a newspaper of general circulation in the county. , except in areas where the county and franchisee have agreed to a different window, and the landfill itself can be closed temporarily during a declared emergency.