By JIM FAILE

Beginning July 1, the city of Hartsville will no longer pick up household garbage from residents if the trash is not in one of Darlington County’s approved yellow garbage bags.

And city officials are emphasizing that means in the yellow bag.

It will no longer be enough to simply tie a yellow bag to the handle of a street side roll-cart or leave an empty yellow bag lying on or in the roll-cart. City workers will not pick up garbage in those situations, and the homeowner will receive notification as to why the garbage was not picked up, officials said.

The reason for all of this, city officials say, is that Darlington County has put its foot down and is now strictly enforcing the county ordinance that calls for all household garbage disposed of at county convenience stations or the transfer station at the county landfill to be in the yellow bags. “It’s been a challenge. We let it go for a while, but things have just kind of gotten out of hand,” said Rodney Freeze, recycling coordinator for Darlington County.

“Eighty-five percent of our citizens do what they’re supposed to do,” said Hartsville Public Works Director James S. Clemons. “But there’s a certain percentage who just tie the bag on the handle or leave the bag on the cart.”

In a number of cases, the bags are tied so securely that city workers have to use blades to cut the bag. Clemons said that renders the bag useless, poses a safety hazard to the employee and adds to the amount of time required to complete a route.

It also contributes to what has become a black market for yellow bags in the county, he said. “There is a black market for yellow bags out there. People steal these bags and sell them,” he said.

“They (the county) have started enforcing it. They have said they are going to take nothing from anybody if it is not in a yellow bag. That means that we have to enforce it on the city’s end. If it’s not in the yellow bag, the city will not pick it up,” Clemons said.

Darlington County’s solid waste collection and disposal ordinance requires that “All approved solid waste generated by residences must be deposited in collection bags approved by the county and sold on behalf of the county if said waste is to be brought to the county’s transfer station for processing and transportation.” That means that all household garbage generated in Darlington County must be disposed of in one of the county-approved yellow bags.

The street side roll-carts used by the city will hold a 90-gallon yellow bag, or residents can use a smaller bag, which include a 35-gallon bag and a 13-gallon bag, which should be placed inside the roll-cart.

City Superintendent of Environmental Services Kevin Gray said his office has already started receiving calls from residents about the change. In most cases, he said, when he explains the reasons to them they understand. But not all, he added.

“Our hands are tied,” Gray said. “If we get out there and dump it and it’s not in the yellow bags, they’re going to charge us for it.”

The county charges a tipping fee of $35 a ton for household garbage brought into the transfer station that is not in a yellow bag. And that adds up quickly, Gray said. “We as a city cannot afford to pay that cost. We can’t afford $35 per ton. Unless the county ordinance is changed, this is the way it’s going to have to be,” he said.

There is no tipping fee for household trash that is properly bagged in a yellow bag, according to Freeze.

The county’s new enforcement is already effective, but the city is giving residents a grace period before it begins its enforcement, Gray said. For the past 30 days city sanitation workers have been distributing orange colored notices about the new enforcement measures, he said. The notice states that to ensure pickup, all garbage must be inside a Darlington County approved yellow bag.

The yellow bag requirement applies only to household garbage and affects mostly residences, though some small businesses in the city are also affected, Gray said.

The county adopted the yellow bag system, dubbed the “Trash two-step,” in the mid-1990s. The idea behind pay-per-bag program was to encourage residents to recycle more with the theory that the more a household recycles, the fewer yellow bags it will have to purchase to throw trash away.

The bags come in three sizes: 90-gallon (designed to fit a street side roll-cart), 35-gallon and 13 gallon. The price of the bags is $6.55 for five 90-gallon bags ($1.33 each). five 35-gallon bags for $2.50 (50 cents each) or five 13-gallon bags (for smaller trash cans) for $1.75 (35 cents each).

The money generated by yellow bag sales helps pay for processing and transportation of household garbage from Darlington County to the Lee County landfill, including a per-ton tipping fee levied for garbage brought to the Lee County facility.

Unlike the Lee County landfill, Darlington County’s landfill is not licensed to accept household garbage. It accepts mostly construction and demolition debris, yard waste and old furniture.

The new enforcement is also affecting private commercial haulers of household solid waste who operate in Darlington County.

“They’ve been told that they can no longer dump it at the transfer station without a yellow bag. They’re real upset, and they’re starting to take it directly to Lee County themselves rather than bring it to the transfer station,” Clemons said.

Gray said city residents with questions can call his office at (843) 383-3019.