Baldwin County Mandatory Garbage Fee: Exemption for Veteran-Benefit Households

Garbage collection is mandatory in unincorporated Baldwin County and some towns, now run by the Solid Waste Disposal Authority of Baldwin County. Policy 7.6, as revised on July 21 and August 18, 2026, sets weekly pickup with one cart at $19 a month, $57 a quarter or $228 a year, and twice-weekly pickup at $38 a month. The State exemption. Section 22-27-3(a)(3) of the Code of Alabama exempts from county solid waste collection fees a household whose sole income is Social Security, and Act 2026-506 adds, from October 1, 2026, a household whose sole income is veterans' benefits, in each case at or below the federal poverty level unless the county adopts a resolution reaching higher incomes; see the Alabama entry. The household must show its source of income to the county health officer, who forwards it to the solid waste officer, and ask again each year. What Baldwin County does. The Commission approves the State exemption quarterly; on October 21, 2025 it ratified 419 Social Security approvals and 66 denials for April 2024 to September 2025, and separately the decisions of its own Low Income Exemption Program. No Commission resolution extending the veteran exemption above the poverty level was found, and neither Policy 7.6 nor the Authority's residential pages mention any exemption, the veteran one included. How to ask. A household living only on VA compensation, pension, DIC or other veterans' benefits should ask the Solid Waste Disposal Authority (or the Baldwin County Health Department) for the section 22-27-3 exemption, with VA's benefit letters as proof of the source of income, and renew it each year. The County's Low Income Exemption Program may help a household that has other income.