CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – People who live along Highway 90 in Horry County say they’re fed up with trash flying off garbage trucks and landing in their yards.
If you travel along Highway 90, you can see trash surrounding people’s homes. Area residents say litter crews make stops to clean the garbage up, but it only takes a few hours for more to pile up.
“You can see all the trash out here and they just picked up yesterday,” resident Dave Burger says.
Burger has lived off Highway 90 for 7 years and claims that picking up trash has become part of his daily routine.
“It’s disgusting trash, too. Some of it is diapers, plastic bags, bottles, and cans. It’s everything,” Burger says.
Burger blames trucks going to and from the solid waste center for the mess and Horry County leaders agree.
“It’s the commercial ones, the city trucks, the people that have so much piled in back there and they have these tarps and in a lot of cases, they flap like a sail in the breeze because they’re not secured down like they should,” Horry County Councilman Johnny Vaught said.
During this month’s public safety meeting, Danny Knight with Horry County Solid Waste Authority said they’ve had a major problem with trucks not covering the trash going to and from the landfill, even though they’re required to by law.
“You can follow them, and you can see it will look like a little tornado in the back of the truck. It will get up so high and then it flies out,” Danny Knight said.
News13 followed several trucks and many either had too much trash for the tarp to cover or nothing covering the truck at all. Now, the county is looking to impose a new fine for all trucks that come to the landfill without a cover over their trash because they say the problem with litter continues to get worse.
“We have got to wake up. We have got to remind our neighbors and stuff that they have a strict responsibility to keep our own yards clean, and if you don’t do it, we’re going to catch you. We’re going to fine you. We’re going to issue you a ticket. We’re going to put you in jail,” Horry County Councilman Al Allen said.
County leaders say they are working right now with their attorneys on this new request for a fine. Horry County Solid Waste Authority is requesting a $150 fee for large trucks that don’t follow the rules and a $75 fee for small trucks.
