Illegal Road Signs Targeted Friday in Hillsborough

Hillsborough County, Fla. (Nov. 17, 2022) - Code Enforcement officers from Hillsborough County and the cities of Tampa, Temple Terrace, and Plant City will join forces Friday, Nov. 18, to rid streets of illegal signs.

The annual cooperative effort, dubbed Sign Off Day Tampa Bay, targets unauthorized snipe signs and advertising on utility poles, medians, parkways, and other rights of way. Code enforcement officers will work within their respective jurisdictions to remove the signs.

For the first time, this year's efforts will include NuCycle Energy, a Plant City business that will process the plastic in the signs into Enviro-Fuelcubes®, an engineered fuel designed to replace coal in energy-intensive industrial processes. The metal portions of the snipe signs will be recycled in the County's existing scrap metal recycling program. With the addition of NuCycle Energy, virtually every component of the collected signs will now be able to be recycled.

The signs, which advertise everything from moving services to houses for sale to tree services, tend to pop up on the weekend, often near busy intersections or on well-traveled roads. Local ordinances prohibit the signs on public property without a valid permit. Collected signs will be recycled or destroyed.

Sign off Day Tampa Bay will begin at 9 a.m. and conclude by noon. Collected signs will be dropped off beginning at 11 a.m. at the Hillsborough Heights Solid Waste Facility and Community Collection Center, 6209 County Road 579, Seffner, FL 33584.