Trash pickup change dropped for Irmo-St. Andrews homes

A plan to make curbside trash collection standard instead of optional in three dozen neighborhoods in the Irmo-St. Andrews area was scrapped Tuesday.

A push for the change ended after Lexington County Council members learned the price isn’t right.

County solid waste director David Eger said it would cost 9,800 homeowners on the north side of the lower Saluda River and Lake Murray nearly $3 extra, not less, per month.

“I can’t justify people paying more for service,” Councilman Phil Yarborough of Irmo said.

Council decided to shelve, for now, any expansion of curbside pickup until current arrangements with trash haulers across the 758-square-mile county start expiring in mid-2018. So folks who take their trash to a disposal center will continue to do that.

“It’s on hold for a while,” Yarborough said. “For the future, this is the more appropriate path to go.”

Slightly more than half of the 9,800 homes in the unincorporated area stretching from I-26 to Ballentine already have curbside pickup costing nearly $16 monthly, officials say. The new tab would have risen to nearly $19 monthly for everyone.

Prices offered by trash haulers for the limited expansion suggest the current rate is “artificially low” and will increase significantly, council chairman Todd Cullum of Cayce said.

Eger agreed that a “considerable increase” in disposal of household garbage, recycling and yard waste is looming for both curbside collection and operation of county-run centers where residents drop off material.