Horry County Council members insist on full accounting of Charleston County recycling deal

Horry County leaders want to see detailed monthly reports about the impact of Charleston County’s recyclables on the local Solid Waste Authority’s recycling center.

The Lowcountry county recently signed a contract with the SWA to process its bottles, cans, cardboard and other recyclables at the authority’s facility on S.C. 90. But the agreement hit a snag this month when some Horry County Council members expressed frustration with the SWA for making the deal so quickly and without their required approval.

The deal appeared dead earlier this month, but some council members changed their positions and supported it. A final vote on the issue is scheduled for Oct. 6.

Those discussions led to Thursday’s meeting between the council’s Infrastructure and Regulation Committee and SWA leaders. Authority officials apologized for the late notice and pledged to provide the council with the requested documentation, including details about tonnage and transportation costs.

“We want this to work,” said Lance Thompson, the SWA board’s chairman. “We want this to be a partnership. We have the same goals.”

Along with the rushed nature of the contract, council members have also worried about the landfill space that will be taken up by Charleston County items placed in recycling containers even though they aren’t recyclable.

SWA leaders have said those items could shorten the landfill’s lifespan by several days per year. However, they pointed out they’ve taken many steps to save landfill space and they agreed to offset any space taken up with rejected materials by hauling the same amount of trash to an another landfill.

“There’s been a lot of talk about us losing three days of landfill space,” said Danny Knight, the SWA’s executive director. “We’re zeroing out those days that we were supposedly going to lose.”

Council members are also worried about extra truck traffic on S.C. 90 and additional litter spilling out on the highway.

“It’s tough,” said councilman Jody Prince. “It’s tough on my people that live on Highway 90. It’s going to be for many years and we need to do anything that we can do to lessen that impact.”

The SWA has been accepting Charleston County’s recyclables for weeks. The recycling facility processes and bales the items and sends them to places that convert the waste into something useable, such as carpet made from old soda bottles.

For the authority, the benefits of this arrangement are financial. Earlier this year, SWA leaders discussed increasing garbage fees in Horry because they anticipated a $600,000 revenue decrease in recyclable sales revenue.

They’ve also said a council decision last year to allow some construction waste to be hauled to landfills outside Horry has lightened their coffers.

Officials estimate Horry County could receive 72,000 tons of Charleston County recyclables throughout the next two years, netting more than $1.6 million.

Council members on Thursday said the contract made sense. They just want the SWA to do a better job keeping them in the loop.

Councilman Johnny Vaught said he learned about other entities that had expressed an interest in having a similar arrangement to Charleston County’s. That information, he said, needs to be shared with council members when the SWA learns of it.

Although the SWA board sets policy for the agency, Horry County Council approves the SWA budget each year and wields the power of the purse.

“We’d like to be apprised of any contacts that come along,” he said. “We want to forestall this kind of thing happening again. … Just let us know that that kind of thing’s going on.”

Vaught, one of the SWA’s most vocal critics, praised the agency for taking responsibility for the communication breakdown.

“You’re standing up and taking the heat and saying you want to do this thing right,” he said. “I just want to let you know that in all my dealings with you and everything, I really appreciate your frankness and your openness and your willingness to come in here and talk to us.”

Although the council and SWA leaders appeared to be in agreement Thursday, Prince pointed out that he’d received a text message from an SWA board member who accused the authority’s leaders of trying to “whitewash” the deal by providing “misleading” information to council that does not show the total impact on the authority.

“This is one of your people,” Prince said, though he wouldn’t identify the board member.

Prince said he wanted to know who was telling the truth.

“You’re wrong or he’s wrong,” he said.

Thompson said he understood the councilman’s concerns.

“It’s been frustrating that we have had, in my five years, a board member that has worked against [ the SWA],” he said, though he also wouldn’t identify the leader in question.

“I’m afraid we have somebody that’s trying to tear down,” Thompson said. “There’s been accusations. There’s been innuendo. There’s been threats. There’s been the kind of stuff that you just read.”

Prince said this type of contentious behavior must stop.

“You need to find a fix,” he said. “If you can’t find a fix, bring it back right here. We’re going to help somebody fix it. We can’t continue to do this.”

This story was originally published September 24, 2015 at 8:48 AM with the headline "Horry County Council members insist on full accounting of Charleston County recycling deal."