County Council Fighting State Trash Bill

County Council is pushing back against a bill that could impact trash collection and what's going into county landfills. 

At their regular May meeting, council passed a resolution opposing House Bill 3290

According to the Edgefield Advertiser, the “Business Freedom to Choose Act” was designed to prevent government entities from excluding competition regarding landfill usage and setting prices on solid waste services.

But county council members are concerned about the amount of power built into the legislation, which would void county ordinances related to solid waste, including fees.

“This is a bill that's basically giving out-of-state trash companies the ability to bypass any county ordinance when it becomes apparent that the county needs to protect their revenue stream and their landfills,” County Council Chairman G. Neil Smith said.

Council balks at the legislation taking away the county's right “to say you can't do something within the county,” Smith said.

Councilman Tom Ponder said the solid waste industry is “pretty much dominated by the private sector.”

“They don't like local government to be in control of their waste stream because in the past the county's been more efficient than the big waste haulers and we have less problems with the regulatory agencies than they do.”

He said most of the state's waste streams are controlled by the private sector and local government's control has been reduced.

“Now the big companies want to bring in trash from out of state, whereas in this point of time, they may or may not be allowed,” Ponder said.

He called the bill a “power move” by big waste companies “to stop the local government, even the state government, from being in control of what happens within the state.”

“We're looking at waste coming in here from the northeast, from the Midwest, from wherever they want to send it, ” Ponder asked. “If they own land, then they can do with it as they please, if this law goes into effect. They don't have our best interests in mind.”

Ponder urged council members and the public to talk to legislative delegation members to oppose the bill.

Smith said the state requires the counties to hit certain recycling quotas to keep certain items from going into landfills.

“If you allow private companies to start cherry-picking those pieces, then what happens is our costs go up – which is your costs,” Smith said, referring to taxpayers.

He said if the bill passes, Pickens County will have to comply.

“This is bad legislation, written by a couple of powerful waste companies,” Smith said. “I don't think anybody likes the idea of accepting waste from New Jersey, New York, whatever – that just gives you an indication of how they view our state.”