FY 2025 Solid Waste Cost Statement
FY 2024 Solid Waste Cost Statement
FY 2023 Solid Waste Cost Statement

FY 2026 Approved Budget
FY 2025 Approved Budget
FY 2024 Approved Budget
FY 2023 Approved Budget

For twenty (20) of my 25 years of investing in Pensacola (East Hill), sanitation was one of our best run departments (resources).

I can't thank DC Reeves enough, for the first time in my entire life, I am actually getting a “free service” and from the government that I have so heavily invested in.

Mayor D.C. Reeves has repeatedly stated that Pensacola’s yard debris pickup service is a“free service in the policy language,” and that charging for it separately would require City Council approval through an ordinance change.

That statement may be politically convenient for re-election campaign purposes, but the City’s own FY Yard Waste Cost Statement & FY Approved Budgets  tells a different story.

According to the City’s sanitation documents:

  • FY2025 sanitation revenue totaled approximately $8.56 million
  • FY2025 sanitation expenditures totaled approximately $8.31 million
  • The City identified:

“Yard Waste/Bulk Waste Collection Cost” = $2,042,500

The City also reported:

“Overall Cost of Yard Trash Collection” = $32 per ton

Those numbers make one thing clear: Yard debris pickup is not free.

Residents are already paying for it through bundled sanitation fees and enterprise fund revenues.

The real distinction is that Pensacola does not currently impose a separate line-item yard waste fee. That does not mean the service has no cost. It means the cost is currently embedded within the City’s overall sanitation structure and shared across ratepayers.

Yard waste collection is one of the most labor-intensive and expensive sanitation operations a city performs. It requires:

  • crews,
  • grapple trucks,
  • fuel,
  • maintenance,
  • disposal operations,
  • and overtime labor.

Pensacola has also publicly acknowledged significant operational strain, including debris volumes increasing from approximately 35 tons per day to more than 100 tons per day during peak periods.

That is not the reality of a “free” service.

The more accurate statement would be:

Yard waste pickup is currently included within the City’s sanitation fee structure and not separately billed.

Pensacola residents are already funding the service — at a cost exceeding $2 million annually according to the City’s own FY2025 sanitation documents.