Curbside Trash in Unincorporated Brevard County — Brevard County, Florida

In unincorporated Brevard County, including Micco and Barefoot Bay, curbside garbage, recycling and yard waste are collected by the county's franchise hauler, Waste Management, under a contract the Solid Waste Management Department oversees from Viera.

The Brevard County Solid Waste Management Department manages the landfills, transfer stations and hazardous waste centers, and it also oversees curbside collection services for residents in unincorporated Brevard County (Brevard County Solid Waste Management). The department works from 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way, Building A, Suite 118, in Viera, phone (321) 633-2042, and its page offers a pickup schedule lookup, a Residential Collection Map of county pickup areas, special yard waste pickup requests and a complaint form.

The hauler is named in the county's own rate papers. The FY2027 collection rate resolution prices container service using rates that Waste Management provided, and its Exhibit A splits the residential bill into charges billed on the property tax roll and charges billed directly by Waste Management (FY2027 collection rate resolution, Exhibit A). The contract behind it runs from October 1, 2020, through September 30, 2027, with an optional three-year extension to September 30, 2030 (FY2027 collection rate resolution).

The legal frame is Chapter 94 of the Brevard County Code. Section 94-31 creates a solid waste collection and recycling program municipal service benefit unit whose boundaries are the unincorporated areas of the county, and Section 94-32 requires that all solid waste generated inside it be collected and removed by a collector (Brevard County Code, Chapter 94). Collection in Brevard's unincorporated areas is therefore mandatory, not a subscription a homeowner in Micco can decline.

Palm Bay and Grant-Valkaria run their own collection contracts, so the county's Waste Management service and its collection assessment apply only outside city and town limits, in places such as Micco and Barefoot Bay.

The county says it plainly on its billing page: collection charges for garbage, yard waste and recycling apply only to residents in the unincorporated areas, while disposal charges apply to all residents (Brevard County Solid Waste billing page). The Tax Collector adds that municipalities within the incorporated areas of Brevard maintain individual recycling programs for their communities (Brevard County Tax Collector).

Palm Bay switched haulers in 2020. Beginning October 1, 2020, Republic Services of Florida took over residential collection for the City of Palm Bay, and city trash is hauled to the Brevard County Sarno Transfer Station (City of Palm Bay). A Palm Bay household therefore pays the county disposal assessment but not the county collection assessment.

Grant-Valkaria contracts with Waste Pro, with regular trash on Tuesday and Friday, household recycling on Thursday and yard waste on Monday (Town of Grant-Valkaria). The Tax Collector also lists a separate non-ad valorem line, Solid Waste for the Town of Grant-Valkaria, with the town's number, (321) 951-1380.

The collection and recycling assessment for a single-family home or mobile home in unincorporated Brevard is $231.98 a year for fiscal year 2027, under the rate resolution prepared for the Board of County Commissioners' August 25, 2026 public hearing.

The resolution sets the FY2027 base rate at $231.98 per billing unit, a 3.0% increase over the previous year (FY2027 collection rate resolution, Section 3). A single-family residence, a single, double or triple wide manufactured home, a townhouse or each unit of a duplex counts as 1.00 billing unit, so a manufactured home is billed the same single unit as a house in Micco, while each space in a manufactured housing rental park of four or more units counts as 0.75. A condominium unit counts as 0.39 of a unit, and cooperative units, apartments and each unit of a quadruplex or sixplex count as 0.75.

The collection charge is only half of the solid waste lines on an unincorporated tax bill. The FY2027 disposal rate resolution sets the residential disposal base at $76.57 per billing unit per year, a charge that pays for Brevard County landfills and applies inside and outside city limits (FY2027 disposal rate resolution). For a single-family home in Micco the two lines together come to $308.55 for FY2027 ($231.98 plus $76.57).

Of the collection money, Brevard County pays Waste Management a set monthly amount. Schedule C of the resolution pays the collector $18.47 per month for each single-family residence, residential mobile home, condominium mobile home and townhouse unit, and $13.85 per month for condominium, cooperative and multi-family units (FY2027 collection rate resolution, Schedule C). Exhibit A breaks the $18.47 into $9.82 for garbage, $3.88 for recycling and $4.78 for yard trash.

Unincorporated Brevard households get two 64-gallon Waste Management carts, one for garbage and one for recycling, and Chapter 94 of the county code sets when carts go out and how yard waste is bundled.

Exhibit A of the FY2027 resolution states that each resident gets 2-64 gallon carts, one for solid waste and one for recycling, that 35, 64 and 96 gallon carts are available for exchange, and that handicap backdoor service is provided at no additional cost (FY2027 collection rate resolution, Exhibit A). Waste Management bills a single-family customer directly for extras: $41.79 for a cart size exchange, $5.37 a month for each additional cart, or $89.55 to buy a cart.

Under Section 94-47 of the Brevard County Code, carts and solid waste must be at the collection point on or before 6:00 a.m. of the collection day, may not go out before noon the day before, and must be pulled back by noon the day after (Brevard County Code, Sec. 94-47). Excess garbage goes in sturdy plastic bags placed beside the cart, clear of the automated truck's arm. A cart that does not meet the code is tagged, and after two tags on two separate collection days the collector may refuse to service it.

Yard waste follows Section 94-49 of the county code. It never goes in the garbage or recycling cart, loose leaves, pine needles, clippings and palm fronds go in yard waste receptacles, and limbs set at the curb are cut to no more than four feet long, 24 inches in diameter and 50 pounds. A pile beyond those limits and over three cubic yards needs a special collection scheduled with the collector, and the Solid Waste Management Department's page lets Brevard residents request one.

Some material is never curbside. Brevard's collector is not responsible for land clearing debris, construction and demolition debris or prohibited waste, which the owner must remove and dispose of under applicable law. Yard waste from vacant lots counts as land clearing debris, and tree trimming or landscaping contractors must haul their own debris rather than set it out for the Waste Management truck.

Brevard County puts the collection and disposal charges on the annual property tax bill that the Tax Collector mails, as non-ad valorem special assessments, and the code allows only narrow exemptions and a vacancy adjustment.

Collection and disposal charges are put on the annual tax bill under non-ad valorem special assessments, and properties certified to be occupied after October 1 receive a pro-rated assessment (Brevard County Solid Waste billing page). For new construction the prorated amount comes as a separate invoice tied to the certificate of occupancy rather than on the tax bill. Billing questions go to Solid Waste Management at (321) 633-2042.

The Tax Collector dates the pieces: the Solid Waste Disposal assessment was implemented in 1977 to run the county landfills, the Solid Waste Collection assessment in 1982 for curbside trash and yard waste pick-up through a franchise collector for all property in unincorporated areas, and State Mandated Recycling in 1989 (Brevard County Tax Collector). Recycling questions in unincorporated Brevard go to (321) 633-2043.

Section 94-241 grants an exemption from the collection assessment only when the property is not next to a street a standard collection truck can reach and the owner shows a sanitary alternative, by application to the director (Brevard County Code, Sec. 94-241 and 94-245). Section 94-245 allows a vacancy adjustment when a home in unincorporated Brevard sat vacant for an entire six calendar months in the preceding year and the owner files a petition with evidence.

Rates are reset every year. Section 94-233 requires the Board of County Commissioners to hold a public hearing on or before September 15 to adopt the collection and disposal rate resolutions, which for FY2027 was set for August 25, 2026 in the Commission Board Room at the Brevard County Government Center in Viera (FY2027 collection rate resolution).

Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the Brevard County Solid Waste Management Department website and the county's Legistar records, with the Brevard County Tax Collector, the Town of Grant-Valkaria and the City of Palm Bay.