Lexington, SC 10/16/2024 (Paul Kirby) – The Lexington County Council is once again discussing mandatory curbside solid waste collection as it has done multiple times over his more than 20 years of service on council according to Councilmember Todd Cullum. “We’ve discussed this every few years since I’ve been serving on the council I believe,” Cullum said during a recent interview with the staff of The Lexington Ledger. “Now, we’ve had a first reading on an ordinance to mandate the service. Next, we’ll have a mandatory public hearing, so we have an opportunity to hear what the citizens think about it,” according to Cullum. “Based on that hearing, we can drop it or move ahead with making it an ordinance,” he said.
“It always amazes me how strongly some of our residents feel about this. In many of Lexington County’s municipalities, it’s one of the more popular services they supply. In unincorporated urban areas, many people already use curbside pick-up. In rural areas, it seems to be a very unpopular concept,” Cullum stated.
According to Cullum, the council has never really gotten to the point where they’ve formally heard and gauged the publics’ opinion on mandating curbside garbage pick-up countywide. Now that the council has had the first reading of a draft ordinance mandating the use of the curbside pick-up, the next part of the process is to hold a public hearing on it. That’s when the council can hear from the citizens how they feel about it. That hearing has been tentatively set for November the 12th at 5:30 p.m. according to Lexington County’s Public Information Officer Vanessa Diaz. It will be held in the Lexington County’s Council Chambers at 212 South Lake Drive in Lexington, SC. This is the glass Administration Building where many of the county’s core services are based.
Right now, citizens have two options available for residential customers. They can use one of Lexington County’s self-service Convenience Stations, or pay to have curbside pick-up where residents want it. This curbside service is offered through companies in districts set up by the county according to Cullum. You can see the districts’ map by looking at the county’s website under Solid Waste or following this link DISTRICTS’ MAP. “This doesn’t apply to businesses or municipalities that offer garbage service,” Cullum said. “Businesses can choose to contract with any garbage removal service that will come to their address.” The cost and frequency of this service is between the business customer and the hauling business, according to Cullum. “In municipalities like Springdale, Cayce, West Columbia, and Batesburg-Leesville, the town or city provides curbside garbage pick-up for residents that everyone participates in.” Cullum concluded.
Although some other council members feel like Cullum and want to hear from the public during an organized public hearing, others say they don’t need to hear from anyone. “In the past when this was brought up, my constituents quickly spoke up,” Councilman Larry Brigham said recently. He represents the far western portions of Lexington County that covers Batesburg-Leesville, parts of Fairview, Pond Branch, and a portion of Gilbert and Summitt. “They’ve said it absolutely, positively, won’t work in my district,” according to Brigham. He went on to say that Councilmembers Scott Whetstone of the rural Pelion and Swansea areas and Charli Wessinger who represents Chapin and parts of Irmo have told him they also oppose it. “We need enough people at the Public Hearing on November 12th to speak out against this ordinance so we can get it stopped,” Brigham said.
Councilmember Cullum said he wants to hear from the people of the county because if people want it, it will make the garbage service for all customers cheaper than it is now. “For decades, many of our residents have taken their garbage to their nearest Convenience Station. It’s just a part of their life and they don’t mind doing this chore once a week,” Cullum stated. “Those people just don’t want the curbside services or its expense.”
According to Cullum, people just have no idea how much of their tax dollars they spend on Convenience Stations every year. “We have one Convenience Station that has over 1 million visits a year. We are about to spend around 6 million dollars to build a replacement one on Augusta Road near I-20,” according to Cullum. In total, the county lists 12 of these Convenience Stations and Recycling Centers on the Solid Waste page of their website. That includes the large transfer building at the County’s Edmund Landfill. “If we had countywide curbside pickup, the expense of running these would go away and that would mean a tremendous savings for the county’s taxpayers each year,” Cullum stated.
People wonder why Lexington County has anything to do with residential garbage service at all. Does Lexington County make money from garbage services is a frequently asked question. Cullum explained during our interview, “We don’t make a dime on garbage pick-up. We simply do this to help citizens who can’t trek to a Convenience Station. Across the county, there are citizens who just aren’t physically able to take their garbage to the nearest Convenience Station,” Cullum said. “It may be that they’re elderly or in bad health. They also might not drive anymore or have a vehicle that will handle their garbage. If they don’t have a pickup or a small trailer, have a small trunk on their car, or their garbage won’t fit in their back seat, they really need curbside pickup,” Cullum stated. “Even though we negotiate with garbage services on behalf of the citizens, taxpayers and the haulers don’t pay us in any way. You pay your bill directly to that garbage business and if you have a comment or complaint, you call that business, not us,” he concluded.
According to Cullum, if the county weren’t involved in the negotiation process, some more rural residents wouldn’t be able to afford curbside pick-up at any price. “In the neighborhoods that have greater density or more affluent residents that don’t want to haul their own trash away, professional garbage haulers will go in those areas and pick up curbside because they pick-up at almost every home. Everywhere they pick-up, that resident is paying them. It allows them to spread out their expenses and this improves their profits. The problem is in the rural areas. You still have people who need curbside service, but there are less customers here and there are long distances between each stop. In those areas, we often couldn’t find any company interested in going out that far for a few roll carts of garbage. We’d put those areas out for bid and get no takers. There was just too much ‘windshield time’ between stops,” Cullum explained. “In these areas, a garbage hauler may pick up at one home and then drive a mile skipping dozens of homes before they hit another customer,” he said. “The trucks still cost the same to operate, they burn the same amount of fuel, have the same employee expenses but so few people want their services that it just becomes unprofitable. It becomes a huge financial loser for them,” according to Cullum.
The only way to get garbage carriers out into these rural areas for the people who really need them is to provide them with some incentive to go. That’s what the County Council does with the garbage carrying contracts. During the bidding process, they try and offer more desirable areas if the carriers also accept some of the less desirable districts.
In looking at this in another way, consider the very rural areas like a stale, several day-old biscuit that doesn’t taste good anymore. No one wants to eat these. The garbage hauling service looks at the rural areas like these bad biscuits. Now the urban areas where almost every household pays for curbside pick-up can be compared to some rich meaty gravy. Basically, the County Council has divided up the bad areas, the biscuits, from the good areas, the gravy. Then they offer some good areas if the companies take some of the bad. Most of the time these incentives are enough to get haulers to agree to take some of the bad areas. Still, that’s not always true. “We’ve often had to beg or bargain to get any company to take areas they really don’t want,” Cullum concluded.
At the Public Hearing on November 12th, you can come speak out and express your opinion about how you feel. Councilmember Brigham says he’d like to fill the council chambers with people opposed to mandatory curbside garbage pick-up. “You shouldn’t be forced to have to pay a garbage hauler in any area if you don’t need or want it,” he said.
Cullum also wants to see the chambers filled with people who are ready to tell the council what they think. “There’s no need to come out with your pitchfork or a torch burning like an unruly mob to the hearing,” he said. “We don’t make decisions based on people being mad at us. Just come to the meeting, sign up to speak, and tell us whether you want mandatory curbside services or not,” he concluded. “Once we’ve heard from both sides, we’ll be able to make some decisions knowing how people feel about this issue.” It might be important to note that Councilmember Cullum lives in the City of Cayce and has Cayce provided garbage service. He won’t personally benefit from what the council decides one way or another.
