Waste and Recycling

A Message From the Director

Throughout my career of many years, I have witnessed and heard story after story about children waiting for their faithful garbage truck to pick up the trash. Parents and drivers often described the children’s excitement and their expressions of gratitude on their smiling faces as they waved from a house window or front yard. Requests for toy-versions of their garbage truck came many times for that special child’s birthday or get-well occasion. I have noticed that children's fascination goes beyond the big truck's noisy maneuvers to recognize the faithfulness and reliability of their driver who, regardless of weather conditions, natural disasters, emergencies, or tragedy, always came to their home to keep the neighborhoods clean and safe for them to enjoy.

As adults, we give little thought to the men and women in the waste collection and processing businesses. As an industry, this is an accepted part of our service. However, in light of today’s COVID-19 pandemic, I feel it is important for me to acknowledge and speak for those employees behind the scenes who contribute daily to our quality of life. These are the landfill operators, customer care representatives, scalehouse attendants, and others – who regardless of some suggestions to self-isolate or telecommute – continue to be among us, in our neighborhoods doing what they do best...keeping our communities clean and safe for us to enjoy and go about our daily lives.

We could only imagine, “what would happen if garbage collection was halted?” Our quality of life and public safety would decline dramatically. For this reason, many federal and state, and local governments have declared waste collection and processing to be “an essential service” linked in importance to the health care industry and first responders.

So the next time you see the faithful and reliable garbage truck driver in your neighborhood or call your waste company, I ask that you consider acknowledging their vital contribution to society by a thank you or a wave. They are everyday heroes – the frontline men and women in the solid waste industry.

Ana Wood, Waste & Recycling Director

About the Division

Polk County Waste & Recycling’s mission is to provide excellent service to Polk County residents, to add value to our employees, to protect the environment and reduce operating cost through the effective use of resources. Waste & Recycling has 50 employees in the areas of landfill operations staff, administration, engineering and customer care.

The division performs a number of key functions including:

• Landfill management
• Residential curbside collection facilitation and contract management
• Household hazardous waste processing

In addition, the division is responsible for communicating information from the State regarding disposal, recycling and solid waste management.

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