Beaufort County to shift to curbside trash pick up by 2020, leaders say

Every Beaufort County household will have its trash and recycling handled through a curbside pickup system by 2020, county leaders announced this month.

The changes will standardize for every resident what is now spotty and varying service for garbage, recycling and yard waste based on what town or gated community a person lives in.

"We can do it at a lower cost if we can get everybody to participate," Beaufort County solid-waste manager Jim Minor said. "The problem is, historically, some people won't participate unless it's mandatory."

The change also is necessary to steer the county clear of an inevitable capacity problem at its existing 11 convenience centers, three of which are already congested with hundreds of visits each day around the county's urban areas, Minor said.

The county has long run an open system of public convenience centers in every corner of the county that accept most kinds of waste and recycling and ship the waste to the Hickory Hill landfill in Jasper County. But Minor has long argued the centers cannot solve the county's eventual waste needs.

Now the county is at a crossroads, Minor told County Council early this month.

Down one road, costly new centers or major upgrades to existing ones will be needed to keep up with demand as the county grows over the next few years. But new federal stormwater regulations could limit both of those prospects, as could residents' concerns about the locations of any new facilities, he said.

Down the other road, a mandatory curbside pickup program would help encourage recycling and ensure a system is in place that can handle more growth, Minor said. But it also comes with its own set of challenges regarding how to handle sprawling rural areas and what companies would be involved, he added.

"The ideal system would be one that provides the lowest cost service to all county residents that maximizes waste diversion from the landfill," Minor said. "Because we don't have our own landfill, we will always pay more for our disposal. So the system that provides the highest rate of recycling is best in the long term for the future -- until somebody invents a ray gun to make it all go away."

Possible costs for a countywide curbside system are murky at best, during what Minor is calling only preliminary planning.

But ultimately, County Council members said this month they believe the move to curbside pickup is the only way for the area to address its looming waste needs.

It also could eventually reduce the county and residents' overall costs of dealing with trash by reducing maintenance and consolidating transportation costs, Minor and council leaders said.

"From my perspective, I think we've been talking about this for a long time," council vice chairman Jerry Stewart said. "It's time we bite the bullet and make it happen."

Minor plans to recommend within the next month that the county hire a consultant to examine possible curbside pickup schedules, costs and pilot programs.

The proposal is unlikely to be warmly accepted, leaders admit. Changes to trash center operating hours and municipal changes to curbside pickup were all dissected and criticized under the microscope of the public eye in recent years.

"We have to get way out in front of this thing," Council Chairman Paul Sommerville said. "I don't think anybody has any idea how much pushback we're going to get. I think it's going to be huge."

Minor and council members will seek feedback on the plan over the coming months.

"We're trying to get all this on the street now, make people aware of the issues and start putting the pieces of the puzzles together," he said.

By the numbers

A look at the numbers that make up Beaufort County's trash and recycling:

40 percent: How much of South Carolina's trash the state wants to be recycled by 2020

11 percent: How much of Beaufort County's nearly 72,000 tons of waste produced last year was recycled

$5.2 million: How much the county spends to operate its waste and recycling centers each year

$19.3 million: How much public and private money is being spent on waste and recycling throughout the county, between local governments, existing curbside pickup and residents' own hauling.

Follow reporter Zach Murdock at twitter.com/IPBG_Zach and at facebook.com/IPBGZach.

Related content:

• Contractor issues that caused trash backup at county convenience centers fixed, Nov. 18, 2015
• Complaints die down over trash centers' shorter hours, Beaufort County says, May 18, 2015
• Residents coping, albeit slowly, with fewer trash center hours, Dec. 28, 2014
• Beaufort County trash, recycling centers to cut hours in October, Aug. 1, 2014

This story was originally published November 22, 2015 at 3:35 PM with the headline "Beaufort County to shift to curbside trash pick up by 2020, leaders say."