Fort Walton Beach releases updated holiday schedule to balance sanitation services with time off for workers
Fort Walton Beach, Florida – Fort Walton Beach city officials have announced the new holiday schedule for picking up trash, recycling, and yard waste from the curb. The changes will take place around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. This will provide sanitation workers time off to spend with their family while still making sure that important services run efficiently.
On Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day, all collections for commercial customers will be halted. The Sanitation Department will work directly with businesses to ensure sure containers are serviced either before or after each holiday. Businesses should prepare ahead. You can call the department with any questions or concerns.
There will be no breaks in residential garbage service throughout the entire season. No matter what week it is, trash will be picked up on its regular timetable. Yard garbage and large trash will still be picked up, but the times will change depending on how many people are working and how much work they have to do. Residents should put objects by the curb, away from mailboxes and utility poles, and staff will pick them up as soon as they can.
Recycling services, however, will see several shifts on holiday weeks. The Thursday routes are the ones that will be most affected because Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day all fall on Thursdays. There won’t be any recycling pickup on Thanksgiving Day. Customers who were supposed to have their recycling picked up on Thursday will now have it picked up the next week, on Thursday, December 4. After Thanksgiving, Friday’s recycling service will go on as usual.
There will also be a break in recycling service on Christmas Day. Thursday customers will have their holiday pickup moved to Wednesday, December 31. The next day, December 26, Friday customers will have their regular recycling schedule.
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New Year’s Day is also affected by this change. There won’t be any recycling pickup on January 1 because it falls on a Thursday. Instead, these residences will have their collection on Wednesday, December 31. On New Year’s Day, there will be no recycling service at all.
The city advises everyone to carefully read the new schedule so they don’t miss any pickups. Fort Walton Beach wants to find a way to balance holiday celebrations with the important business of maintaining neighborhoods clean and well-serviced. They prepare ahead and make a few temporary adjustments.
