Horry County Solid Waste budget to maintain in 2016; authority to kick off filling, sealing final area landfill

Horry County Solid Waste Authority is proposing to operate on a slighty bigger budget next fiscal year and its executives do not anticipate any rate or fee increases either.

However, if compensation for recyclables continues to decline as it has been worldwide, that loss of revenue will likely fall on the backs of those who pay for garbage service in Horry County by next summer.

The authority is proposing to operate on a $13.5 million budget next fiscal year, which begins July 1. It’s a nearly 3 percent increase from this year’s budget. An increase in tipping fees from volume of municipal solid waste and construction and demolition debris combined with an increase in fees per ton for yard waste, which went from $14 per ton to $18 per ton this year, is cause for the increased budget.

Danny Knight, executive director of the authority, said a pick up in construction has led to the increase in waste to the landfill off S.C. 90.

“They are really doing great with building permits and we can see it,” Knight said.

But the authority is anticipating a $600,000 decrease next year in recyclable sales revenue because market prices for recyclables like scrap metal, paper, cardboard, and more have dropped due to an over saturated market, said Jan Bitting, director of finance for the authority.

“Recyclable sales was our biggest decrease,” Bitting said. “There was a 20-percent decrease there and that’s due to the market prices we’re getting and that’s hard to recoup when you lose the prices. You’re still getting the same tonnage, but you’re not getting the same prices for it.”

If the trend continues, a fee increase for haulers of municipal garbage and construction debris may be inevitable.

“Next year we may have to look at a tipping fee increase if we don’t see an increase back in these recycling materials prices,” Bitting said.

The Solid Waste Authority also has a milestone planned for 2016 — a $13 million piggyback construction project to kick off filling and sealing the final area of the landfill, which currently has a life expectancy until 2035.

Knight said the final build-out is the piggyback and it’s going to be constructed in two phases. The first phase, which will begin in July if the budget is approved, will cost $13 million in the coming fiscal year.

Knight said a new private construction and demolition debris facility is opening on Ronald McNair Boulevard, which would mean a shorter haul for construction companies clearing debris from properties closer to the beach. That means potentially less debris, and less income, to the Solid Waste Authority in the coming years.

“We feel sure we will lose more C&D material there because it’s such a shorter pull from the beach,” Knight said, noting the continued decline of value for recyclables will make an impact. “We’re getting the board used to thinking that if these prices continue to fall and expenses continue to rise... we will probably have to look at a tipping fee increase” in fiscal year 2017, which begins July 1.

The budget still must be presented to the county’s infrastructure and regulation committee before its board considers it. It will then go to the full County Council.

This story was originally published April 23, 2015 at 12:43 PM with the headline "Horry County Solid Waste budget to maintain in 2016; authority to kick off filling, sealing final area landfill."