If you thought the price of trash collection in unincorporated Guilford County was going to stay the same while the price of just about everything else in the world is going up, you were sadly mistaken. At the Thursday, August 4 meeting of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, the board listened to the waste haulers that operate in the county and allowed them to raise prices.

The board voted to increase the maximum solid waste collection fee to $25.50 a month in unincorporated Guilford County. Republic Services, GFL Environmental and Randolph County Garbage Service operate the in the county.

The cities and some towns in the county have their own trash pickup operations.

At a commissioners work session in July and at the August 4 regular meeting the trash collection companies made their cases to the board. Two major factors for the companies’ calls to increase prices were the rising cost of gas and rising cost of labor.

The collection companies had asked for varying fee increases and had also requested that the maximum fee be tied to the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. The Board of Commissioners approved a maximum fee of $25.50 for all haulers but took no action on the request to tie future fee increases to that index.

Due to a customer “Bill of Rights” adopted by the board several years ago, trash collectors operating in unincorporated Guilford County must notify their customers of any rate change at least 30 days before putting them into effect.

Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston issued a statement that noted proper waste pickup is important to the health and well-being of the county and added, “While we did not agree to implement the full request from the three licensed waste haulers, we recognize that our solid waste partners require an increase to the maximum collection fee to sustain the current service levels and meet performance standards.”

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