Yard Waste and Storm Debris Removal in Orlando

Orange County collects storm debris after a declared event only when the pile is built its way, and a pile built any other way gets skipped. The county's emergency debris rules (ocfl.net) say vegetative debris and construction debris must sit in separate piles, and the exact wording is that if the two are mixed, neither will be picked up. A fence section tangled in a downed oak limb fails that test. So does a pile of fronds with a few pieces of soffit thrown on top.

The rest of the county checklist is just as specific. Limbs can be no longer than three feet and must weigh under 60 pounds each. Household garbage can never be mixed in. The pile goes at the edge of the property, clear of water meters, utility boxes, mailboxes and storm drains. Yard waste is never bagged after a storm. Debris a contractor generates, whether a roofer tearing off shingles or a fence company replacing panels, is never collected under the free program and has to be hauled by the contractor or by someone you hire.

The scale of the job explains the wait. After Hurricane Ian and Tropical Storm Nicole, the county's own newsroom reported on January 13, 2023 that the cleanup had collected about 355,000 cubic yards of debris across 7,940 truckloads using 96 trucks, and that effort ran from October into January. Hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30, and Orange County has been hit by Irma in 2017, Ian in 2022 and Milton in 2024. If your pile is mixed, oversized or sitting behind a gate, or you cannot wait for the county cycle, a paid hauler is the route that gets the yard back this week.

The county cannot send its trucks into a private or gated community, so an HOA behind a gate owns its own storm debris problem. Orange County states plainly that it cannot remove vegetative debris from private or gated communities. The options the county gives an association are to carry the pile out to the public right-of-way beyond the gate, to request a county letter authorizing a private hauler to use a citizen drop-off site, or to arrange a county-designated roll-off, and all three leave the association doing the organizing. Communities approved after February 24, 2009 are required by county code to keep an HOA storm debris account for exactly this reason.

Condominiums, trailer parks and manufactured home communities where residents do not own the land are treated as commercial properties for debris purposes and have to arrange their own removal outright. Vacation rental managers around Kissimmee, Four Corners and ChampionsGate are in the same position, with the added pressure of guests arriving on a booked date. Osceola County alone has more than 30,000 vacation homes (Experience Kissimmee, July 2026), and a screened pool enclosure that came down in the wind cannot wait for a county truck that will never come.

For an association, the practical move is one hauler, one written price for the whole community pile or a per-load rate agreed in advance, and a receipt from the disposal site for the board's records. Board members and managers who call this line should say how many homes are affected, whether the debris is piled at a central point or at individual driveways, and what the gate code or guard arrangement is. Haulers routed from here handle the gate call and the paperwork the board needs, and the same applies to the commercial side of a mixed-use property, covered under commercial junk removal.

Storm debris is priced by how much of the truck bed it fills, with the number agreed in writing before loading starts. The haulers routed from here quote in bed fractions: a minimum load, a quarter, a half, three-quarters or a full truck. A half truck means half the bed, and a decent crew shows you the bed before loading and again after so the fraction is something you saw rather than something you were told. Green waste is bulky and light, so a big pile of fronds can fill a truck fast; it is worth asking whether the crew will compact or cut it down, because that changes the fraction.

A few things move the number, and a straight hauler names them at quote time:

• Mixed loads. Fencing, shingles and drywall count as construction material at the landfill and cost more to dump than clean green waste.
• Heavy material. Wet carpet, soaked drywall, pavers and concrete footings from fence posts weigh far more than they look.
• Long carries. A pile at the back of a half-acre lot, or behind a pool enclosure with a narrow gate, takes more crew time than a pile at the driveway.
• Gate and access. A guard gate, a locked community or a steep lake lot adds time.
• Dismantling. A collapsed shed or a screen enclosure that has to be cut apart before it fits in the bed is quoted as labor on top of volume.

Here are the national ranges that frame what a typical job costs. Every figure is a typical range confirmed by your own written estimate.

A yard that took a direct hit can run past one truckload, and a hauler who sees the photos should say so up front and price the second load before the first one leaves. There is no deposit. You pay when the pile is on the truck and the yard is raked.

Routine yard waste and a modest storm pile can go out for free in both the city and the unincorporated county, and it is worth using that allowance before paying anyone. City of Orlando residents have a weekly yard waste day. Unincorporated Orange County residents (ocfl.net) get weekly large item and yard waste collection on the same day, limited to three cubic yards per household per week, set out before 6am. Three cubic yards is roughly a pile the size of a small car's trunk stacked three times over, so a hedge trim fits and a downed oak does not.

You can also haul it yourself. The Orange County landfill at 5901 Young Pine Road takes yard waste, and the Porter transfer station on Good Homes Road and the McLeod Road transfer station accept yard waste on Saturdays only. The landfill is the only county site that takes construction and demolition debris, which is where fence panels, shingles and drywall belong, at $42.70 per ton with a $10 minimum charge under the rates effective October 1, 2026. An uncovered load is charged double, so bring a tarp and straps.

A paid hauler is the better call in four situations. The pile is bigger than three cubic yards and you do not want to feed it to the curb a week at a time. The pile mixes green waste with fencing, screen or building material and would be refused under the storm rules. The property sits behind a gate, inside a condo association or in a vacation rental where the county will never come. Or the timing matters: the yard is a hazard, the HOA has sent a letter, or guests are arriving, and same-day and next-day pickups are available on this line. Many Orlando HOAs also limit how long a pile may sit at the curb, which turns a free program into a fine if the county cycle runs long.

The county trucks skip whatever fails their rules, and a private hauler is the route for whatever got left. The pattern after a storm in Orlando is familiar: the vegetative pile gets picked up, and a fence section with screws in it, a roll of soaked carpet or a tangle of screen frame is still sitting there weeks later because it counted as construction debris or because it was mixed with the limbs. A 311 report can get the street re-run for the vegetative portion. The building material portion was never on the county's list, and contractor debris never is.

Calling (407) 326-0014 with a couple of photos of what remains gets a written price for that remainder, whether it is a half truck of fence panels or a single load of lanai screen and broken furniture. Whoever attends takes the mixed pile as it sits, so there is no re-sorting on your part. If you are embarrassed that the yard still looks like the storm was last week, you are in a long line, and the crew has seen worse on the same street. The point is to get it gone. For debris from the inside of the house, torn-out drywall, flooring and cabinets, the construction debris removal page covers how that load is priced and where it goes.

A full backyard clearout in Orlando is priced the same way as any other load, by the fraction of the truck it fills plus the adjustments for weight, access and dismantling, and most jobs land inside the national ranges above once the pile is photographed and quoted in writing. A yard that holds years of fallen fronds, a dead hedge line, a rotting fence, an old swing set and a rusted grill fills a truck faster than people expect because green waste does not stack tight. The swing set and the grill add metal that the hauler can route to a recycler, and the fence adds construction material at the landfill rate.

The way to get an honest number is to send a wide shot of the whole yard, a close shot of anything heavy or metal, and a note about the gate width and how far the truck can get from the pile. The hauler we route then quotes a bed fraction and names the add-ons in writing. If the job is likely to go past one load, that gets said before the truck arrives rather than after the first load is full. Sunday work is by arrangement, and pickups run 7am to 7pm Monday to Saturday. Some backyard clearouts include a pulled-out spa, which is its own job covered under hot tub removal.

Clean green waste from an Orlando yard is ground and composted or mulched, construction material goes to the Orange County landfill, and metal from fences and frames goes to a scrap recycler. The county's landfill on Young Pine Road accepts yard waste as its own stream, and the transfer stations take it on Saturdays. Keeping it separate from building debris is what lets it be ground instead of buried, which is the same reason the county's storm rules insist on two piles. Fla. Stat. 403.708(12) also restricts burying yard trash in lined Class I landfills, so a hauler who mixes everything into one load is paying a higher rate and putting compostable material where the state says it should not go.

The landfill is under pressure. Florida DEP's 2024 disposition figures show Orange County collected 4,199,080 tons of municipal solid waste, landfilled 70 percent of it and recycled 30 percent against the state's statutory 75 percent goal, and DEP's capacity study estimated in October 2024 that the Young Pine Road landfill had about 14 years of permitted airspace left. That is one more reason a crew sorts the load instead of tipping it all in one hole.

Dumping it in a wooded lot or a retention pond edge is the one route to rule out. Under the Florida Litter Law, Fla. Stat. 403.413, dumping more than 500 pounds or any commercial quantity is a third-degree felony with a fine up to $5,000 under s. 775.083, 15 to 500 pounds is a first-degree misdemeanor with a fine up to $1,000, and even 15 pounds or less draws a $150 civil penalty. A storm pile passes 500 pounds in one truck. Ask the hauler where the load is going and request the disposal receipt; a legitimate crew expects the question.

Five checks separate a hauler worth hiring from a pickup truck that showed up because of a storm, and all five take under a minute. Florida has no state license for junk hauling, so nobody can show you one. The haulers routed from here operate under an Orange County Business Tax Receipt and carry liability insurance, and you should ask whoever attends for proof of insurance before a crew walks under a damaged screen enclosure or carries heavy material across a wet lawn.

• Proof of insurance, shown on request, from the crew that takes the job.
• The price in writing before anything is loaded, stated as a bed fraction plus named add-ons.
• The can't-take list repeated at quote time, so nobody argues about a fuel can at the door.
• Where the load is going, by name, with a disposal receipt available.
• No deposit. Payment by card or invoice when the yard is clear, and tips never expected.

After a hurricane the metro fills with out-of-town trucks and unmarked trailers. A written price and a named disposal site are the two things that stay the same whether the storm was last week or last year. You can read how the line is run on the about page or send photos through the contact page.

Most Orlando pickups mix two or three of these, and the pages below describe the ones that most often ride on the same truck.

• Construction Debris Removal: Drywall, tile, lumber and torn-out fixtures hauled to the one county site that takes them.
• Commercial Junk Removal: Office, retail and restaurant cleanouts scheduled around the hours the business keeps.
• Hot Tub Removal: Drained, disconnected, cut into sections and hauled out through the lanai or the gate.

After a storm the fence, the lanai screens and the soaked carpet all need a route, and the about page covers how one call arranges them.