Laurens County, SC Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

Sec. 32-325, added by Ord. No. 897 on May 11, 2021 as part of the county's Litter Control and Regulation Ordinance, protects the county's franchised recycling program from scavengers. Subsection (a) prohibits scavenging in Laurens County outright and says recyclable materials that have been segregated from other waste and placed at a designated collection location cannot be removed by anyone except the franchised waste and recycling hauler, unless Laurens County government authorizes someone else in writing. Subsection (b) broadens the ban beyond recyclables: no one may scavenge, search through, or remove solid waste or recyclable material from a container or receptacle on a public street, alley, parkway, right-of-way, or other public, private, or governmental property once it has been placed there for collection.

Subsection (c) carves out narrow exceptions for authorized solid waste collection crews, law enforcement, and a business's own employees or contractors placing that business's own materials in a receptacle. Enforcement is assigned to the sheriff's department and the Laurens County Litter Control Officer under Sec. 32-326, which treats a violation as a misdemeanor. This scavenging ban is the closest thing the county code has to a recycling rule: it does not set out separate curbside recycling program mechanics, but it protects whatever recyclables a resident sets out for the franchised hauler from being picked over or hauled off by anyone else before the scheduled collection.