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

Sec. 54-37 sits in Chapter 54's solid waste article, which Sec. ' Subsection (a) separately requires that household garbage be kept only in plastic bags or sanitary covered cans or staff-approved containers. Subsection (b), the illegal-dumping and accumulation rule, bars any owner, occupant, tenant, or lessee from permitting the accumulation of any type of waste materials, trash, rubbish, refuse or litter of any kind on land or inside or under a building or structure that could provide harborage or breeding places for mosquitoes, vermin, or rats.

It separately lists prohibited accumulated items, including lumber, boxes, barrels, bottles, cans, bricks, stones, containers, old appliances, and abandoned motor vehicles, while carving out an exception for useful items such as firewood and building materials if they're stored safely. Subsection (c) sets the enforcement path: the county may serve written notice by certified mail giving the owner 30 days to remedy a violation, and if that letter comes back unsigned, the county may instead post notice on the property itself, which counts as legal notice.

If the owner still doesn't comply, the county can enter the property, remove or correct the accumulation, and charge the cost to the owner; those costs become a lien against the property collectible the way any other property lien is collected. Sec. 54-39(5) separately makes it unlawful to rummage through, remove, salvage from, or otherwise scavenge or tamper with any county-owned solid waste container, container area, landfill, or transfer station in the unincorporated county, and Sec. 54-39(11) makes any violation of that chapter a misdemeanor punishable within the penalty jurisdiction of magistrate's court. The director of public works administers and enforces the article under Sec. 54-36, with authority to request help from other county departments.