LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. — Lexington County is experiencing delays in yard waste pickup due to impacts from the coronavirus pandemic.
Dave Eger, the Solid Waste Management Director for the county, says this is an issue the metropolitan area and the country are both facing.
"We're having a huge shortage of drivers, primarily CDL drivers. And so what we're experiencing here with the collection agencies is that they're having a very difficult time obtaining CDL drivers," said Eger.
Due to COVID-19, Eger says many people have been out because of being sick.
"The more recent thing has been more trying to get people to work. (The collection agencies have) lost a number of drivers," explained Eger. "They're in the process now of trying to obtain additional drivers to be able to get their routes back up and going."
With less drivers being available, some routes have been dropped. The Solid Waste Manager Director says collection agencies are mainly taking care of household waste and recycling.
Right now, yard waste has been what's been delayed for pickup.
"We're seeing you know some improvement in that area. They've been working very hard on obtaining additional drivers," said Eger. "They've also brought in, somebody from out of town. They have what they call a red one team that they've got that's coming in and, and so they're they're actually from out of state. They brought those in to help them beef up their their driving abilities."
The Solid Waste Management Director for the county believes the delay in trash pickup for yard waste will be temporary. He says it will take some time to train new drivers that are being hired so they can get familiar with the routes.
"Here in Lexington County, we do what's called franchise collection service curbside," explained Eger. "It's not picking up everyone through the various different streets, you might have one person on one street that they're over picking up, then they got to go somewhere else so it's the training that's very difficult."
Right now, the county would like to ask people to be patient as they continue to work through these issues.
"We are working on it, we're working to get these things up and running correctly. We're going to do everything we can to get that accomplished. They need to have patience because it is going to take some weeks here to get this thing turned around," said Eger.
If someone in Lexington County is having issues with their trash pickup, they can head to their website and fill out a customer complaint form. The county will then work with the contractors to correct the problem.
If someone wants to get rid of their yard waste and not wait for the pickup, they can take it to any of the 11 collection and recycling centers the county has. They're open Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 7 am until 7 pm. On Sunday, they're open from 3 pm until 7 pm.
- Ball Park Road: 301 Ball Park Road, Lexington, SC 29072 (West Region)
- Bush River: 6109 Bush River Road, Columbia, SC 29212 (North Region)
- Chapin: 103 Distant Lane, Chapin, SC 29036 (North Region)
- Edmund: 325 Landfill Lane, Lexington, SC29073 (Central Region)
- Hollow Creek: 125 Beulah Church Road, Gilbert, SC 29054 (West Region)
- Leesville: 702 South Lee Street, Leesville, SC 29070 (West Region)
- Pelion: 1325 South Pine Street, Pelion, SC 29113 (South Region)
- Riverchase: 110 River Chase Way, Lexington, SC 29072 (North Region)
- Sandhills: 3241 Charleston Highway, Cayce/West Columbia, SC 29033 (South Region)
- Southeast: 538 Martin Neese Road, Swansea, SC 29160 (South Region)
- Summit: 419 Sandpit Road, Leesville, SC 29070 (West Region)