Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity and Fairfax County staff will host a televised forum tomorrow (Tuesday) to discuss a plan that, potentially, would have the local government oversee trash collection for single-family properties countywide.
Herrity asked his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors on May 13 for permission to host the event in conjunction with the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES).
“We’ve received some concerns” about the proposal, Herrity said at the board meeting.
The event will be held at 6:30 p.m. on June 3 and can be viewed on TV via Channel 16 or online through Herrity’s Facebook page.
The event will feature “an initial presentation followed by the opportunity for the community to ask questions,” he said.
With Herrity voting nay, the supervisors voted 9-1 on April 22 to advertise a June 24 public hearing on plan to establish Unified Sanitation Districts for all single-family neighborhoods.
Under the new model, DPWES would issue and manage contracts directly with private haulers, rather than leaving it up to individual residents or neighborhoods. With private companies handling all trash collection, the county would phase out its own services — a possiblity that has alarmed at least one county workers’ union.
Virginia law gives localities the authority to take over trash services through unified sanitation districts, but they must give private collectors five years to phase out their services before the new system takes effect.
“It is not like this is going to happen any time soon,” Board Chairman Jeff McKay said when the public hearing was set.
Currently, only about 10% of residents in single-family neighborhoods use trash services offered directly by the county government. The remainder are served by private haulers, about 20 of which are certified to serve county residents.
Fairfax County began exploring options for expanding its authority to collect trash in 2022 after receiving a spike in complaints about private companies falling behind or missing pickups and reducing service. One company, Haulin’ Trash, declared bankruptcy, leaving former customers unable to get refunds.
County staff believe the unified sanitation district model could result in lower costs, improve performance, and reduce waste and greenhouse-gas emissions by enabling the county to include requirements or incentives in its contracts.
Fairfax Workers Coalition Executive Director David Lyons, however, is skeptical of the proposed model, arguing that it’s a way for the county to generate revenue and will ultimately eliminate the jobs of public trash collection workers.
“I think prices will go up, and the most important part of it for us is that it’s going to, no matter what they say, eventually eliminate these jobs and privatize the county trash service,” Lyons told FFXnow. “That’s what it’ll come to. They may find jobs for these folks, but it’s the beginning of the end of public trash service in the county.”
The county already contracts out trash collection for local government facilities to a private hauler. The service was previously provided by DPWES, but the county recently shifted to a contractor in response to “staffing shortages, equipment failures and the overall inefficiency” of having trash picked up from “sparsely distributed” sites, according to the recently adopted fiscal year 2026 budget.
If the board decides to move forward with consideration of Unified Sanitation Districts for residents after next month’s public hearing, local leaders say that still doesn’t necessarily guarantee that the new model will be implemented.
“This is just starting the process,” County Executive Bryan Hill said at the April 22 meeting.
Photo via Fairfax County
