# Storm Debris Pickup Rules in Miami-Dade and Broward: What Goes at the Curb

**Restoration Doctor of Miami** (Restoration Doctor of Miami)
Phone: (786) 213-9489 ((786) 213-9489) · office@restorationdoctors.com
Address: 1200 Brickell Ave Suite 1950 #1007, Miami, FL 33131
Category: Storm & Hurricane · Published: September 18, 2026 · Updated: September 18, 2026

> TL;DR: Storm debris pickup in Miami-Dade and Broward runs on separated streams, and the wet drywall, carpet and cabinetry a flood cut produces is construction and demolition debris rather than vegetative debris, often a different collector on a different schedule. Separate and stage the piles to the rules your own city or county publishes, and photograph damaged contents before anything reaches the curb, because once it is gone the claim evidence is gone with it.

![Separated vegetative and building-material debris piles at the swale of a South Florida street after a storm.](https://restorationdoctorfl.com/images/blog/storm-debris-curb-rules-miami-dade-broward-cover-1600.jpg)
*Vegetative and building debris go to the swale in separate piles, not one mixed heap.*

## What are the storm debris pickup rules in Miami-Dade and Broward?

Storm debris pickup rules in Miami-Dade and Broward share one governing idea: crews collect sorted piles, not mixed ones. You place each material stream separately at the swale in front of your own property, clear of the mailbox, meter, hydrant, storm drain and low wires. Each stream is picked up by the truck built for it.

The part that catches property owners out is the second idea. Palm fronds, branches and hedge trimmings count as vegetative debris. The wet drywall, carpet, padding, baseboard, cabinetry that come out of a flooded house are construction and demolition debris, a separate stream, frequently a separate contractor, and sometimes a later schedule.

Beyond those two ideas the detail is local. Miami-Dade County runs collection for the unincorporated area and for the municipalities that contract with it. Broward County runs collection for the Broward Municipal Services District and operates the county landfill plus county-level bulk and household hazardous waste programs. Broward's incorporated cities generally arrange their own residential collection, and most publish their own storm debris page. That is why the same pile is collected on one street and left on the next.

Read the published rules before you drag anything out. Start dates, pass schedules and size limits move from storm to storm.

## What is the difference between vegetative and construction debris?

Vegetative debris is what the wind took off the yard. Construction and demolition debris, usually shortened to C and D, is what came off or out of the building. The distinction is about material and destination, not about how the damage happened.

Vegetative material is ground and mulched or composted. Building material goes to a permitted C and D facility where gypsum, wood, metal or concrete are handled under different rules. Mixing the two contaminates a load, which is the practical reason a mixed pile is passed over.

| Stream | What belongs in it | Where it ends up | Common mistake |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Vegetative | Palm fronds, branches, trunk sections, hedge cuttings, uprooted plants | Ground and mulched or composted | One fence panel tossed on top, which reclassifies the pile |
| Construction and demolition | Wet drywall, insulation, carpet, padding, baseboard, cabinetry, doors, roofing, fencing, tile | A permitted construction and demolition facility | Bagging it, which hides the material |
| Appliances | Refrigerators, freezers, washers, dryers, water heaters, air handlers, window units | Metal recovery after refrigerant removal | Leaving food sealed inside a refrigerator |
| Electronics | Televisions, monitors, computers, printers, audio equipment | Electronics recycling | Burying them in the construction pile |
| Household hazardous waste | Paint, solvents, pool chemicals, fuel, batteries, propane cylinders, pesticides | A county hazardous waste program, by appointment or drop-off | Setting it at the curb at all |

*The streams most South Florida programs collect separately. Confirm the categories with your own city or county.*

![Two technicians handling a section of removed wet drywall outside a South Florida house, with cut material stacked alongside.](https://restorationdoctorfl.com/images/blog/storm-debris-curb-rules-miami-dade-broward-1-1600.jpg)
*Flood-cut material is construction debris, not yard waste.*

## Which pile does wet drywall, carpet or cabinetry go in?

All of it is construction and demolition debris. A flood cut produces gypsum board, insulation, base trim, carpet, pad, tack strip and often the lower run of cabinetry. None of that is yard waste, and none of it belongs in a heap with the tree that came down in the same storm.

The material is heavy and it stays heavy. Wet gypsum holds a surprising amount of water, and carpet pad that has taken on floodwater weighs several times its dry weight. Cut it into manageable pieces and keep them stacked rather than scattered.

Two items regularly get sorted wrong: tile knocked off a slab, and a hurricane shutter or impact window unit propped against the tree limbs. Both are construction debris.

- Construction and demolition pile: drywall, insulation, carpet, pad, tack strip, baseboard, interior doors, lower cabinetry, damaged subfloor, tile, roofing, soffit, fascia, fence panels, screen enclosure frames.
- Vegetative pile: palm fronds, branches, trunk sections cut to the length your program asks for, hedge cuttings, plants pulled out with the root ball knocked clean of soil.
- Its own small stack: refrigerators and freezers emptied and taped shut, washers, dryers, water heaters, air handlers, window units.
- Drop-off or appointment, never the curb: paint, solvent, fuel, pool chemicals, pesticide, propane cylinders, vehicle batteries, lithium batteries out of a damaged device.

## Why does contractor-generated debris get treated differently?

Most programs draw a line between debris a property owner generated themselves and debris generated by a paid contractor. Public collection exists to clear material a resident cannot reasonably move, and a company paid to demolish something is generally expected to haul what it demolished.

How firmly that line is drawn varies by jurisdiction and by event. Some programs collect it anyway on the first pass. Some ask that the contractor handle it from the start. Treat it as a question with a local answer rather than a rule you can assume.

That turns into one contract question worth asking before work begins. Ask your restoration contractor, in writing, whether removal and disposal of the material they cut out sits inside their scope or is billed separately, and who is physically taking it away. A company that does this work properly will already have an answer, because disposal is a real line item with weight tickets behind it.

That documentation matters later. We bill you, the homeowner, and hand you a carrier-ready claim file, with the disposal record inside it alongside the moisture logs and photographs.

## How should the piles be separated and staged for collection?

Staging is the part you control. A grapple truck operator should be able to see what a pile is from the cab and take the whole thing in one bite without touching a different stream.

Work through the checklist below in order.

- 1. Put it on the swale in front of your own property, at the edge of the road, never in the road or on the sidewalk.
- 2. Keep every pile clear of the mailbox, hydrant, water meter, utility boxes, poles, guy wires, storm drains and parked cars.
- 3. Never stage under low wires or overhanging branches. A grapple arm needs vertical room.
- 4. Build separate piles with a real gap between them: vegetative, then construction and demolition, then appliances, then electronics.
- 5. Cut trunks and long limbs to the lengths your program specifies, and knock soil off root balls.
- 6. Leave construction debris loose and stacked rather than bagged, unless your local rule asks for bagging.
- 7. Empty refrigerators and freezers, tape the doors shut, and leave refrigerant lines to the technician who recovers them.
- 8. Hold household hazardous items back for a drop-off or an appointment.
- 9. Photograph each staged pile before collection, with the house in the frame, so volume and material are recorded.
- 10. Check your city or county page again before each subsequent pass, because categories and schedules change.

![A grapple truck working a swale pile of palm fronds and branches on a South Florida street after a storm.](https://restorationdoctorfl.com/images/blog/storm-debris-curb-rules-miami-dade-broward-3-1600.jpg)
*A grapple arm needs clearance overhead and a pile it can classify from the cab.*

## What must never go to the curb?

A short list of material stays off the curb under South Florida programs generally, and the prohibition holds after a storm the same as it does on an ordinary Tuesday. Setting any of it out risks a skipped pile at best and a code enforcement problem at worst.

- Household hazardous waste of any kind: paint, thinner, solvents, adhesives, motor oil, fuel, antifreeze, pesticides, pool chemicals, propane cylinders, vehicle batteries, lithium batteries from flooded devices. Contact your county hazardous waste program instead.
- Anything you suspect contains asbestos, including older floor tile, sheet flooring and pipe or duct wrapping in an older structure. Stop and have it assessed before it is disturbed.
- Material from a property that is not yours. Programs collect from the frontage that generated the debris, so moving a neighbor's pile onto your swale is a good way to have both piles passed over. Ask your city or county before consolidating anything.
- Soil, sod, sand or rock in bulk, which most programs exclude from both streams.
- Anything placed in the roadway, on a sidewalk, in a swale bottom that carries water, or blocking a driveway or hydrant.

## Why should contents be photographed before they leave the house?

Because a pile at the curb is no longer evidence. Once the truck takes it, the only proof that a sofa, a mattress or a rug existed and was damaged is whatever you recorded before it went out. Reviewers work from documentation, and the absence of it is not read in your favor.

Photograph contents where they sit first, before anything moves. Then lay the damaged items out on a tarp in the driveway and photograph them again in daylight, in groups small enough to identify individual pieces. Capture the model plate on anything that has one, and note the water line on upholstery and case goods.

Keep the same discipline for building materials. Photograph the wall before the flood cut, the cut line after, the wet insulation as it comes out and the meter reading on material that stays. A moisture meter reads low on a surface that has been open to the air for two days, so the reading taken at removal carries more weight than one taken later.

There is a health reason as well as a claim reason for moving quickly. Wet gypsum and wet upholstery in South Florida humidity begin to support microbial growth within a day or two, which is why porous material saturated by floodwater generally comes out rather than being dried in place. The EPA mold guidance listed in the last section puts a 24 to 48 hour window on drying water-damaged material before mold growth becomes likely. It also says outright that porous material such as carpet may have to be thrown away once it is moldy. The IICRC water damage and mold standards, also listed there, are the industry documents restoration companies work to.

- Photograph every room and every damaged item in place before anything is moved or cut.
- Photograph the same items laid out and identifiable before they go to the curb, model plates included.
- Photograph each staged pile at the swale, with the property visible, before collection.
- Keep a written inventory with quantities, rough age and a one-line description for each significant item.
- Back the photographs up off the phone the same day. A phone that has been through a storm is not an archive.

![A gloved technician holding a phone over household contents laid out on a tarp before they are moved.](https://restorationdoctorfl.com/images/blog/storm-debris-curb-rules-miami-dade-broward-2-1600.jpg)
*Lay contents out where each piece is identifiable, then photograph them.*

## How long does post-storm collection usually take, and who do I call?

Plan for passes rather than a pickup. After a significant event, collection runs in rounds: an emergency push to clear the roadway, a first full residential pass, then repeat passes while material keeps appearing at the swale. On a large event that sequence stretches from weeks into months.

The authority on your specific street is your own solid waste department, not a neighbor and not a social media thread. In Miami-Dade that is the county department for the unincorporated area and the municipalities that contract with it. In Broward it is your city if you live inside an incorporated municipality, because each one contracts its own hauler, and Broward County itself if your address sits in the Broward Municipal Services District.

When you call or write, have your address ready, which stream the pile is, and roughly when it was staged. Those answers let a dispatcher tell you whether your street has been passed and whether a contractor-debris rule is in effect.

## What happens if my pile is skipped?

A skipped pile almost always has a physical reason, and it is usually visible from the street. Work through the causes below before you escalate.

If the pile is clean and separated with a clear approach, report it and keep a record of when you reported it. Note the date, who you spoke to or which form you submitted, and photograph the pile again. A pile that was genuinely missed is usually picked up on a later round.

One caution about waiting. Wet building material left at the swale for weeks in South Florida heat becomes a smell problem and an insect problem. If collection is clearly not coming, hiring a licensed hauler to take it to a permitted facility is a legitimate option, and that receipt belongs in your claim file.

- The pile is mixed. One fence panel in the vegetative stack reclassifies the whole thing.
- It is bagged, so the operator cannot classify what is inside and leaves it.
- It is blocked or unsafe: parked cars, a hydrant, a meter, a storm drain, low wires, an overhanging limb.
- It is not on your own frontage, or it sits in the road rather than on the swale.
- It is a stream a different truck carries, and that truck has not run your street yet.
- It contains something prohibited, which stops collection of everything around it.

## Where can I read the official rules for myself?

The pages below are the primary sources. Read your own county or city storm page first, because it carries the dates and categories for the event you are in. For a Broward address, that page belongs either to your city or, inside the Broward Municipal Services District, to Broward County Solid Waste and Recycling Services. The federal and standards pages explain the reasoning behind the streams.

- Miami-Dade County Solid Waste Management: https://www.miamidade.gov/global/solidwaste/home.page
- City of Fort Lauderdale storm debris removal, one example of a Broward municipal program: https://www.fortlauderdale.gov/Government/Departments/Fire-Rescue/Services-Resources/Community-Programs/Hurricane-Preparedness/Storm-Debris-Removal
- Broward County Solid Waste and Recycling Services (broward.org/WasteAndRecycling), covering the Municipal Services District, the county landfill and household hazardous waste.
- Florida Department of Environmental Protection, waste programs including construction and demolition debris: https://floridadep.gov/waste
- EPA, household hazardous waste: https://www.epa.gov/hw/household-hazardous-waste-hhw
- EPA brief guide to mold and moisture in the home: https://www.epa.gov/mold/brief-guide-mold-moisture-and-your-home
- IICRC standards, including S500 for water damage restoration and S520 for mold remediation: https://iicrc.org/iicrcstandards/


## Frequently asked questions

### Can wet drywall and carpet go in the same pile as tree branches?

No. Tree branches are vegetative debris and get mulched, while drywall, carpet or padding is construction and demolition debris bound for a permitted facility. Mixing them contaminates the load, so the usual result is that neither pile is collected. Keep the two stacks separate, with a clear gap between them, and keep appliances and electronics in their own small stacks as well.

### What happens if my storm debris pile is not picked up?

Check the pile first, because most skips have a physical cause: mixed material, bagged material, a blocked or unsafe approach, low wires overhead, or a stream that truck does not carry. Fix what you find, then report it to your city or county solid waste department and record the date you reported it. Repeat passes are normal on a large event, and a genuinely missed pile is usually collected on a later round.

### Does my restoration contractor haul away the material they remove?

Ask before the work starts and get the answer in writing. Many programs treat contractor-generated debris differently from what a resident puts out themselves, and the local position can change partway through an event. A company that handles this properly will tell you whether removal and disposal sit inside their scope or are billed separately, and will keep the weight tickets that back the disposal line.

### Where do I put a flooded refrigerator after a hurricane?

In its own small stack at the swale, separate from the vegetative and building piles, because appliances go through metal recovery after refrigerant is removed. Empty the food out first and tape the doors shut so it does not open in transit or attract wildlife. Leave the refrigerant lines alone. Washers, dryers, water heaters, air handlers and window units go in the same appliance stack.

### Should I throw damaged furniture out before the adjuster sees it?

Photograph everything first, in place and then laid out where each piece is identifiable, and write a short inventory with quantities and descriptions. Once material leaves the curb it cannot be inspected, and the photographs become the only record that it existed and was damaged. Saturated porous items usually do need to come out quickly in this climate, so document thoroughly rather than waiting.

## Related reading

- Storm and Hurricane Damage Restoration — https://restorationdoctorfl.com/services/storm-damage-restoration
- Contents Cleaning and Restoration — https://restorationdoctorfl.com/services/contents-restoration
- Water Damage Restoration in Fort Lauderdale — https://restorationdoctorfl.com/locations/fort-lauderdale
- Hurricane Water Damage: What to Do First — https://restorationdoctorfl.com/blog/hurricane-water-damage-what-to-do-first
- The South Florida Water Loss Calendar, Month by Month — https://restorationdoctorfl.com/blog/south-florida-water-loss-calendar-by-month
- The 50 Percent Substantial Damage Rule in South Florida — https://restorationdoctorfl.com/blog/fema-50-percent-substantial-damage-rule-south-florida

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