MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – As more people move to Myrtle Beach, that means more trash the city has to collect.
The city produces 59 million pounds of waste each year, and that amount continues to rise, but Myrtle Beach has plans to keep up with the growing population and the trash people produce.
“With more houses, more customers, there’s more trash, more stops to make, so we need to add both equipment and people to make those extra stops, to service that growth we’re experience in our customer base,” Mark Kruea, Myrtle Beach spokesperson said.
Myrtle Beach could add six more sanitation employees for the next fiscal year starting July 1, and the trucks to match.
“Two people for a full-time garbage truck, two people for a full-time recycling truck and two additional boom loaders to pick up bulky junk and bulky items,” Kruea said.
The new garbage and recycling trucks would cost the city more than $200,000 each, and the two new boom trucks would cost over $100,000 each.
Right now, sanitation workers have to physically load trash onto their trucks, but city officials say they have talked about eventually getting automated trucks to do the heavy lifting.
“At this point we have equipment and people, you still need people to drive the truck, I don’t know that it would save time and labor, but it is something that we’re looking at as a possibility,” Kruea said.
Myrtle Beach is still in the planning phase of their budget for the next fiscal year.
