Lancaster County, SC Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Section 12-67, adopted by Ordinance No. " The sites, created under Sections 12-61 through 12-63, are meant for residential household garbage placed directly by residents and for rubbish such as furniture, appliances and yard debris carried to designated dumping areas the county administrator establishes; they are not a free disposal outlet for a hauling business's collected loads. The chapter pairs this with Section 12-68, which limits container and rubbish-area use to county residents, though it lets any motorist traveling the public highways empty up to one cubic foot of refuse per vehicle.

Enforcement runs through Section 12-69: any violation of Division 3, including the commercial-dumping ban, is a misdemeanor punishable by the fine and/or imprisonment fixed in Section 1-10 of the county code, plus the cost of any damage the dumping causes to a container. A summary court may substitute supervised litter-gathering labor for the fine, capped at one hour of labor for every five dollars of the fine that would otherwise apply. Environmental Services and the Sheriff's Office are positioned to enforce the ban against haulers caught using county sites instead of paying for licensed commercial disposal.