Yard debris, the landfill and burning rules in Horry County
The city won't take it, the landfill charges by the ton, and a backyard burn started the fire that took 76 homes in 2009 and the one that evacuated Carolina Forest in 2025. Here's what actually happens to the debris.
What the towns collect — and don't
Myrtle Beach's solid waste ordinance (Chapter 17, as amended by Ordinance 2020-33) is specific: the city will not haul stumps, trunks, branches over four inches in diameter, land-clearing debris, or anything placed at the curb by a tree or landscape contractor. Loose yard waste goes in paper bags of 25 pounds or less. North Myrtle Beach's code (Section 12-58) requires contractor-generated yard waste and lot-clearing debris to be hauled by the contractor. The other towns and the county have their own schedules and size limits for resident-cut debris, and after a declared disaster the county and FEMA run a separate debris program with its own rules and its own timeline — usually weeks. The practical result is that tree work on the Strand includes the haul-off, or the debris sits.
The landfill
The Horry County Solid Waste Authority landfill on Highway 90 near Conway takes yard waste, clean wood and land-clearing debris at $22 a ton (as of August 1, 2025); mixed construction and demolition debris is $46. The Authority sells the result back as compost and mulch, $22 a ton plain, $70 colored. A typical whole-tree removal is one to three tons; a lot clearing is a lot more, which is why we mulch in place when we can.
Burning
South Carolina law requires notifying the Forestry Commission before any outdoor burn — 1-800-986-5404 — and Horry County Fire Rescue adds its rules: yard debris only, generated on site; 50 feet from structures and property lines; someone attending it; no burning during a county or state ban (the state banned burning March 27–30, 2026, for example). Land-clearing burns are a different category: 1,000 feet from roads and other people's buildings, lit between 9 and 3, no more than two piles 30 by 30 feet per six acres. The towns are stricter — Myrtle Beach and the beach towns effectively prohibit open burning of debris.
Why the rules are what they are
Two fires. On April 22, 2009, an escaped debris burn got into the pines and palmetto on organic soils near Highway 31 and burned for two weeks — 19,130 acres, 76 homes destroyed, 97 damaged, $17 million in timber. On March 1, 2025, a backyard debris fire in Carolina Forest got away into the same kind of ground, burned 2,059 acres, evacuated about seven neighborhoods, and smoldered in the peat of the Carolina bays for days. The Strand's inland soils are peat over sand under pine straw, and a fire that looks out goes underground. We don't burn tree debris on this ground, and we'd rather you didn't either.
What we do instead
Chip it — the branches and the small wood go through the chipper into the truck and to the landfill, or stay as mulch if you want it. Buck it — the trunk sections go on the trailer, or stay as firewood (oak) if you want them. Mulch it in place — for lot clearing, a forestry mulcher grinds everything standing into a two-to-four-inch layer and leaves no pile at all. Haul it — every load to the Authority's landfill the same day, on our trailer, at our cost in the price. And after a declared storm, if you'd rather wait for the county program, we'll cut to the program's size limits and stack it at the curb.
Common questions
The city picked up my neighbor's branches. Why not mine?
Because theirs were under four inches, in the city's size limits, cut by the resident. Yours were cut by a contractor, or were trunk sections, and the ordinance excludes both.
Can I burn a small pile in my yard in Carolina Forest?
Legally, with the Forestry Commission notified, 50 feet from everything, attended, no ban in effect. On Carolina Forest's peat, where the 2025 fire smoldered underground, we'd strongly rather you didn't. The HOA likely agrees.
What does haul-off cost?
It's in our removal prices. Separately, a trailer load of your own cut debris to the landfill is $250–$800 depending on volume, plus the $22-a-ton tipping fee.
Will the landfill take a palmetto?
Yes, as yard waste at $22 a ton. It won't compost well and it won't burn, which is why palmettos are hauled whole.
Related: Storm cleanup · Lot clearing · Stump grinding · Carolina Forest