Small trash haulers oppose a Unified Sanitation District
If Fairfax County establishes a Unified Sanitation District, it would kill his business, says Phillip LeMaster, the owner of Garby Disposal Services.
Under the USD proposal, the county would take over trash and recycling and engage a company to handle all waste collection in a single region. State law requires a five-year waiting period before a USD could be implemented.
LeMaster plans to testify against the proposal at a Board of Supervisors hearing on June 24. He reached out to other small trash haulers and urged them to speak out against the measure and sign a petition opposing the takeover.
Residents – particularly those with homeowner associations – expressed lots of concerns about a USD at a town hall last week, citing the elimination of choice and the potential for higher costs.
The petition says a USD “would displace every private and municipal hauler, wiping out family businesses, their drivers, and office staff, and likely outsourcing the work to a few billion-dollar corporations.”
Related story: Residents express concerns about a Unified Sanitation District
LeMaster predicts the county will likely outsource waste collection to the two largest national companies – American and Republic. Less competition will result in higher prices, he said.
He also warns a USD will result in reduced service, with trash collected once a week, eliminating the option for twice-weekly pickups provided by Garby and other small haulers.
Another drawback would be the loss of personal relationships. “We know our customers by name and take care of them at all hours, seven days a week,” he said. “A distant contractor will not.”
Garby has four trucks and serves about 3,000 customers in the Centreville area. LeMaster said he and his wife started the business from scratch in 2022, “sacrificing savings, sleep, and family time.” A USD “could bankrupt our family business and many others like it.”
Garby has contracts with HOAs and offers subscriptions to residential homeowners. Most HOAs sign up for twice-weekly trash collection and weekly pickups for recycling and yard waste.
If the county creates a USD, “the value of our company would drop to zero,” LeMaster said. “No one would buy our customers.”
“We want to win a county contract; obviously, it would be very challenging,” he said. He would have to buy more trucks, which cost around $400,000 to $500,000 each. Moving the business to another county also presents challenges, including less efficiency.
The USD proposal “is very shortsighted. They don’t have a plan on how this will be executed,” LeMaster said, and “there’s no plan to compensate us.”
It’s not just about Garby, he stressed. All the small haulers, such as Flag Disposal in Fairfax, Champion Services in Fair Oaks, and Nightingale on Route 1, are in the same boat.
“It’s really devastating for small businesses,” he said. “We invested hundreds of millions of dollars, and now our businesses could be ripped away from us.”
7 responses to “Small trash haulers oppose a Unified Sanitation District”
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Sorry to remind folks that the Majority of persons on the Fairfax Board of Supervisors (democrats) don’t encourage or support small businesses. The county regulations and ordinances favor large businesses, federal employees/contractors, and high real estate taxes to be spent on special (interest) projects. Keep putting one party in charge and this is what happens. Look at the chaos of one party running the federal government for a recent example and it’s the same thing in every jurisdiction when one party dominates.
Unifying Sanitation: A Necessary Step, Not a “Special Project”
Let’s cut through the noise. The push for a county-wide unified sanitation district in Fairfax County isn’t some whimsical “special interest project” dreamed up by a “dominant party.” It’s a pragmatic move to fix a fragmented, often inefficient system that’s failing residents.
This isn’t about coddling “big business” or “federal contractors.” It’s about delivering essential public services with the efficiency and consistency that a dispersed, private patchwork simply can’t guarantee. Imagine standardized collection, clear rules, and a single point of accountability instead of the current chaos where residents are left to fend for themselves with multiple, often unresponsive, private haulers. And yes, better environmental goals will be achieved when the county can actually coordinate and enforce real recycling and waste reduction, not just leave it to the whims of disparate companies. This isn’t charity; it’s basic, effective governance.
The “Anti-Business” Smokescreen
To assert that a political majority, or any party, is inherently “anti-business” for pursuing public good is a cynical and lazy deflection. This isn’t about being “anti-business”; it’s about being pro-public.
When faced with a system that can be improved for the collective benefit, clinging to the status quo or crying “foul” is what’s truly against progress. A stable, county-run utility provides a predictable operational landscape, a far cry from the cutthroat, inconsistent environment that often plagues residents dependent on private trash services. New avenues for business will open up, just different ones – specialized services, maintenance contracts, advanced processing. That’s not “anti-business”; that’s a market adapting, and demanding.
The tired trope about “one party” causing “chaos” is just that: tired. It’s a baseless fear-mongering tactic. Good governance, regardless of party, prioritizes effective service delivery. If the current system isn’t delivering, it’s time for a change. And if some businesses can’t adapt to that change, perhaps it’s less about political bias and more about the evolution of public necessity.
You clearly prefer telling others what to do. As to the Fairfax government favoring large corporations the proof is in the burdens and obstacles the regulations and ordinances – anyone trying to start a business will tell you the horror stories in Fairfax and that is why the city of Falls Church and Fairfax City are pro business. As to the services, the county can’t even make what they do provide for trash and yard waste work. Defending the current officials is your interest and privilege, just as mine to note the systemic problems that one party rule produces – here and in other jurisdictions (state, county, nation, etc). I’ve lived in many places like this and it never works well despite intentions. This is but one example in Fairfax, another is the planning commission appointee of Mason Supervisor pushing unrealistic development (see other Annandale Today stories).
I have to agree with JTR on this. The county has proven it can’t handle yard waste removal reliably; I have little faith that a county-wide trash removal system will work any better. In fact, I think it would strain the already-scarce resources already in existence.
In this instance, I am definitely pro-business, especially relatively small businesses, as it seems most of them have been doing well enough for quite some time. Why do we have to fix what isn’t broken? This is a horribly misguided idea.
I have no problem with keeping small business owners in business. We are seeing the tragic consequences, the chaos and uncertainty being imposed by the current federal government with its on again, off again, reduced again, increased again, tariffs. Small businesses are on the brink of shutting down. Large businesses can weather these changes. let’s give small businesses a break. I agree with JTR when one party (the R) dominates all branches of the government, we are in for big trouble.
We have private trash pick up and have had it since we moved into our home in 2010. I am not sure how I feel about the county out sourcing to a private trash company I already use. My mother’s home the county picks up. Last week they did not pick up her yard waist on her day ( Wed). I called the county today and I was told that I would need to call the day of the pick up or the next day for them to address it. They could not do anything about on Monday (today). All I was trying to do was to have them make a note to make sure to pick up the trash this coming Wednesday. 🙄😬
We need to stop outsourcing to big companies, the county needs to do its own collection.
It isn’t reasonable for the county to make those two awful giants any more money