Garbage and Recycling in Sebastian, Florida

WM collects garbage, yard waste and bulk waste at every City of Sebastian residence under a city franchise, while recycling is the Indian River County Solid Waste Disposal District's single stream program, also run with WM.

WM is the environmental solutions provider for the City of Sebastian (City of Sebastian). Each residence receives one-time per week collection service for garbage, yard waste, and bulk waste. The city's FAQ describes the bulk piece as on-call bulk waste collection, so large items are arranged with WM rather than set out on any day (City of Sebastian FAQ).

Recycling sits with the county, not the city. The Indian River County Solid Waste Disposal District, or SWDD, is an organized dependent special district of the county (Indian River County). Its recycling page says all residents in IRC received a new 95-gallon blue recycling cart for single stream recycling service, picked up once a week, and sends cart questions to WM at 772 569-1776 (Indian River County SWDD). Sebastian Daily reported on April 13, 2023, when the Sebastian City Council picked its garbage plan, that recycling would remain the same as it was by the county (Sebastian Daily).

Vero News reported on July 17, 2025 that the cities of Vero Beach and Sebastian and the towns of Orchid and Indian River Shores have their own trash hauling contracts and costs, which is why a home inside the Sebastian city limits and a house in unincorporated Roseland can be on different garbage plans while sharing the same blue cart program (Vero News).

Sebastian households get four curbside services a week from WM, split between a city garbage contract and the county recycling program, with drop-off at the Roseland convenience center and the county landfill.

The weekly schedule, cart sizes and drop-off hours above come from the City of Sebastian garbage page, the city FAQ, the county universal collection FAQ and the county landfill page; the assessment lines and phone numbers come from the Indian River County Tax Collector. Each Sebastian address has a set collection day in the county pickup day lookup, which warns that its bulk trash schedule applies only to unincorporated Indian River County, not to the City of Sebastian.

Sebastian moved from optional WM subscriptions to universal curbside collection on July 1, 2023, after the Sebastian City Council voted to make the service required for all City of Sebastian residences.

The City of Sebastian City Council voted to transition to universal curbside collection service beginning July 1, 2023 (City of Sebastian FAQ). Before that date curbside pickup was a subscription. Sebastian Daily reported on March 26, 2023 that the council recalled its first universal vote because, according to the Indian River County Tax Collector, the city cannot place the trash pickup costs on the tax bills until October 1, 2024; at the time the trash company had a 17% delinquency rate on its accounts (Sebastian Daily).

The council voted again in April 2023. Sebastian Daily reported that the 3-2 decision chose the Universal (mandatory) option, at about $19.45 a month to be billed annually through the homeowner's tax bill, and that only three trash companies, including Waste Management, responded to the city's bid (Sebastian Daily).

The changeover was physical as well as financial. WM delivered a new 96-gallon garbage cart to each Sebastian residence between June 12 and June 30, 2023, and as of July 1, 2023 only new carts will be serviced, with any old cart left at the curb emptied and removed (City of Sebastian FAQ). From October 1, 2023, a household could swap the 96-gallon cart for a 64-gallon or 35-gallon cart.

Since tax year 2024 the City of Sebastian has billed curbside garbage as a Sebastian Waste Collection non-ad valorem assessment on the Indian River County property tax bill, after WM's quarterly invoices ended in September 2024.

The Indian River County Tax Collector lists the City of Sebastian 'Sebastian Waste Collection' assessment (Effective Tax Year 2024), and gives (772) 581-0111 as the number for questions about it (Indian River County Tax Collector). The city's garbage page states WM will continue to invoice residents quarterly through September 2024, and the City of Sebastian will assume responsibility for invoicing beginning October 1, 2024 (City of Sebastian).

The rate set for the 2023 changeover was $19.45 a month. The city FAQ adds a 3% franchise fee, making the total monthly rate $20.03 (City of Sebastian FAQ). The city has not posted a newer monthly figure on its garbage pages, so the actual line on a current Sebastian tax bill is the authority for today's charge. A second garbage cart costs a one-time charge of $87.55 from WM at (772) 569-1776, and no monthly charge applies to it.

A second, separate line pays for disposal and recycling. The Tax Collector states that recycling pickup is provided to all residents of Indian River County and is included as part of the Solid Waste assessment, which also funds landfill operations and customer convenience centers (Indian River County Tax Collector). That SWDD assessment counts 1.60 WGUs per single family residence and 1.20 per multi-family or mobile home park unit, one WGU being one ton of waste a year (Indian River County SWDD). Vero News reported on July 17, 2025 that a typical county family pays around $163 in landfill fees, set to rise 15 percent annually in 2026, 2027 and 2028 and 6 percent in each of the next two years, to a total of $260 by 2030 (Vero News). Last verified: October 11, 2026, on the City of Sebastian website and the Indian River County Tax Collector website.

On October 1, 2025 Sebastian homes received a new 95-gallon blue recycling cart from the Indian River County program and possibly a new collection day, with no change to the City of Sebastian garbage contract.

The county FAQ answers Sebastian residents directly: the only change will be a new Recycling cart and possibly a new collection day effective October 1, 2025, with notice of the new day mailed in September (Indian River County SWDD FAQ). The same date started universal trash service in unincorporated Indian River County and the Town of Indian River Shores, which is why county neighbors outside the city limits saw larger changes than Sebastian did.

Cart questions go to WM. The county lets residents request a different size by calling WM at 772-569-1776, with the first exchange free, and an extra recycling cart costs nothing for the cart, the delivery or the month (Indian River County SWDD FAQ). The recycling program itself is old: Indian River County has had countywide universal curbside collection of recyclables since 1991, Vero News reported (Vero News).

After the blue cart is emptied, Indian River County recycling is sorted at the landfill and trucked to St. Lucie County for processing, and the sorting tent was destroyed by Hurricane Milton in 2024, according to Vero News, which reported a planned $5 million household hazardous waste and recycling transfer facility built to withstand storms. Inside city government, the Sebastian Natural Resources Board supports the overall reduction in the use of single-use plastics by the City, its residents and businesses and links to county recycling guidance (City of Sebastian Natural Resources Board).

The Roseland Customer Convenience Center at 7860 130th St, Roseland, is the nearest county drop-off for Sebastian, and the Indian River County Landfill at 1325 74th Ave SW, Vero Beach, takes construction debris and large branches.

Indian River County operates a landfill and five Customer Convenience Centers, at Roseland, Winter Beach, Gifford, Oslo and Fellsmere (Indian River County SWDD). The centers are open 7:00 am to 6:00 pm, for residential use only, and all close on Wednesday plus holidays. Roseland CCC is closed Tuesday and Wednesday; the Fellsmere CCC on County Road 512 is closed Wednesday and Thursday, which matters to west Sebastian households that use it as a backup.

The Roseland CCC and the other county convenience centers accept household hazardous waste, including rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, fluorescent light bulbs, motor oil, water and oil based paints and items containing mercury. They also take items the blue cart refuses, such as white Styrofoam, plastic bags, plastic wrap, scrap metal, electronics, tires and small yard waste.

Construction and demolition debris is chargeable and must go directly to the Indian River County Landfill, as must branches over three inches in diameter and land clearing debris. The landfill is open 7 days a week from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm and closes on New Year's Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. Its tipping fees stayed the same for 27 years until new rates took effect October 1, 2023, rising 3% annually after that (Indian River County SWDD). Republic Services has operated the Class I landfill and the Material Recovery Facility under county contract since January 1, 2011 (Indian River County).