Dorchester County, SC Trash & Recycling: Pickup Rules & Schedules (2026)

Chapter 34, Article I of the Dorchester County Code governs how residential waste actually reaches the county's disposal system. Section 34-1, adopted by Ordinance No. 80-11 on May 19, 1980, requires that portable disposal containers be used for residential waste and that the waste be placed inside the container at the container site, not left on the ground beside it; items such as appliances, industrial waste, trees or brush must instead go to a DHEC-approved landfill rather than a container site. The same section bars anyone from searching, probing, scavenging, damaging or removing a container from its designated area, and it closes the sites to nonresidents, who are not permitted to use any portable landfill container regardless of whether they pay county taxes elsewhere.

Section 34-1(d) further limits container-site property to the sole purpose of disposing of acceptable residential waste and recyclables; using the site for any other purpose makes a person a trespasser subject to prosecution under the article. Section 34-71 adds a parallel, article-wide duty: every owner of real property in the county must see that all solid waste generated on that property is disposed of consistent with the county's other waste ordinances, and the recycling and disposal system exists precisely so owners have a lawful way to do that.

Read together, these sections describe a container-and-delivery model rather than a curbside pickup service: residents bring waste to a county container or convenience site, and the county's system exists to receive it once it arrives.