Viewpoint: Fairfax County’s trash fee stinks!
By Greg Crider
Fairfax County has the highest trash collection fee in the area, which is proposed to go even higher starting July 1.
After raising the fee 25 percent over the past two years, County Executive Bryan Hill proposes to raise the fee yet again from the current rate of $610 to $630 a year in his Fiscal Year 2027 budget.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors should reject any increase in the fee and instead direct the county executive to find ways to reduce the fee to a rate more in line with surrounding jurisdictions.
County officials contend they only charge what it costs them to collect the trash. If so, they must be very inefficient. The City of Alexandria charges $500 a year and proposes no increase. Arlington County charges just $415 annually. Private companies charge even less.
Just 10 percent of county residents have county trash and recycling services, but most of those residents are in the Mason and Mount Vernon districts.
At a recent forum hosted on the county’s plan for a Unified Sanitation District, the leaders of dozens of HOAs and civic associations said they pay private haulers no more than $35 a month – often for two pickups a week. Fairfax County collects trash once a week.
Related story: HOA leaders oppose a USD
So, Fairfax County charges significantly more for less service. How can they do that? Because the county executive proposes and the Board of Supervisors approves the fee without doing due diligence. And most homeowners don’t notice the fee because it is added to their property tax bill.
It’s now likely to get worse. Under the USD proposal, the county would take over trash collection for all homeowners. As a result, county officials would determine who will collect your trash and how much you will be charged on your tax bill.
Tell the Board of Supervisors NO to any increase in trash fees before they adopt a budget for FY 2027.
The board will hold public hearings on the budget on April 14-16. Provide input on the budget here.
Greg Crider is a resident of Mount Vernon.
Thanks for tracking this. Has Annandale today reached out to Jimenez for comment?
FFX should consider outsource to the service a neighboring county who does it better and cheaper, BUT, I think the costs are due to another issue. Having lived in Arlington, I think that Arlington code enforcement does a better job than Fairfax. That does have an impact on the cost of these services. I see many more “boarding” homes in Fairfax with far more residents than are legally permitted. This leads to excess cars parking on the street and on the lawn. Extra people obviously leads to more refuse and those houses have trash can that always overflow as well as excess bags and full non-county provided cans. So a truck has to make far more trips to the dump than would have been planned for based on nominal refuse production. Waste handling at the dumps and all the diesel costs for the extra trips adds up.
Ken you are spot on
I’d like to understand why we pay so much more than other counties. I’m also very annoyed with the leaf pickup fee. For several years now, I’ve only had one pickup because all the leaves in my neighborhood fell before the first pickup. But we paid for 3 pickups. I’m not going to hold my breath for a refund. I appreciate the county handles this but we shouldn’t be paying for services not rendered or over charged for the services that are.
Keep trash service commercial vs govt run and you’ll be able to pick someone else or even do it yourself.