Lexington County is throwing away plans for countywide garbage collection. Here’s why
Lexington County has put its plan for handling countywide garbage collection out with the trash.
The county council voted to drop the proposal, which would have established countywide collection of household waste for the first time, at its Tuesday meeting, shortly before a public hearing where many members of the public were opposed to having to pay for the new service.
Currently, residents in the unincorporated portions of Lexington County have the option to sign up to have their trash picked up by private collectors, something that has sparked complaints of uneven or unreliable service depending on how many households choose to sign up in different parts of the county. Lexington County does maintain 11 collection sites for household waste, which have seen spikes in usage as more residents have moved into the county.
The proposal would have created an annual charge to cover trash pickup in the county. Officials previously estimated that a program would cost each household $258 a year, when the idea was last considered in 2021. Richland County offers a similar service, including recycling and removal of yard debris, for the cost of $368.
But around half of county residents currently don’t subscribe to a collection service at all, and didn’t take kindly to the prospect of being required to.
County resident Louan Caron told council members Tuesday that regular trash collection “might be great for a community, but if you’re in a rural area and have a half-mile long driveway, you don’t want to drag it down there.”
“Plus there’s animals, so it’s going to get knocked over and destroyed, and the trash people won’t pick up the trash [left in the street],” Caron said. “I’d rather bring mine in [to a collection site] once a month or so.”
Another resident, Joyce Mize, told council, “I want to have a choice in how I want to spend my money.”
“I take my own trash to the dump,” Mize said. “I don’t need extra bills.”
But Solid Waste Director Lee McIntyre told council that the current system of piecemeal trash collection is “not sustainable.”
“If there’s only two or three on a street, you might miss people,” McIntyre said. “The drivers are looking at maps and trying to remember addresses. ... If they stop at every house it’s cheaper to provide that service.”
Some council members hoped to find a way to carve out rural areas from more clustered housing developments going up in the unincorporated parts of Lexington County.
“We need to do this in planning developments of 10 homes or more, but not the entire county,” said Councilman Scott Whetstone.
Council chair Beth Carrigg, however, said current state law wouldn’t allow the county to specify areas for a trash service.
“The Legislature would need to allow overlay districts for more populous areas,” she said. Otherwise, “It would have to be unified curbside across the board.”
This story was originally published November 14, 2024 at 11:29 AM.
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