ORLANDO, Fla — Brevard County is making changes to a popular landfill, and it's going to be a big adjustment for small businesses that rely on the facility.
What You Need To Know
- Brevard County is no longer taking many common types of yard and construction waste
- There is currently one other landfill in the area that accepts that type of trash
- A local business shares the impacts of the change
Many items will no longer be accepted at the Melbourne location, Items that fall under the Class III category like yard trash, construction debris, and furniture will all be rejected moving forward.
For small businesses relying on the convenience of the landfill, it’s going to hit them in the pocketbook.
Connor Jones said he could probably drive to the Brevard County Sarno Road landfill in his sleep.
He runs Junk Force Junk Removal and Demolition in the southern part of the county. His team visits the landfill several times a day, six days a week. It’s the most convenient place to dump furniture and debris after jobs.
“Palm Bay to Melbourne area, it allows us to tackle more people (customers) in this vicinity with it being right here,” Jones tells us.
But things are changing. The landfill will be at capacity at the end of February or early March 2023. Among the items they will no longer accept are furniture and demo debris they haul.
That means Jones and so many businesses who rely on it will have to re-route to the county’s only other landfill in Cocoa.
“Going up to Cocoa definitely makes it more of a trip for us as far as gas and stuff like that, can’t do as many jobs in the area, especially beachside stuff,” Jones says.
Jones says they will miss out on work just to travel. Round trips add on nearly sixty miles of drive time. And they already gas up their trucks twice a day at one hundred dollars a fill up. The county’s new landfill on State Road 192 near the Osceola County line will not be complete until 2026.
Jones says it’s going to cut into their profits.