New Rock Hill rules mean your drop-off clothes bin could be moving. Or going away.

You can see them in almost any large parking lot around town: bins inviting you to drop off your old clothes to help somebody else in need.

A count by the city of Rock Hill found at least 26 of them within city limits, a number that fluctuates almost daily, Billy Meyer, city planning director, said.

Now a new set of regulations the city is rolling out could limit where those bins would go and who can put them out. And some operators say the changes might drive them out of Rock Hill completely.

At its last regular meeting in June, the Rock Hill City Council approved a change in zoning rules that would tighten regulations surrounding bins, which planners worry have sometimes been put in inappropriate places and placed without the consent of property owners. The rules will be enforced if the council gives its final approval in August.

The proposal, developed by the city’s planning commission, would change the definition of what the bins are.

“Now,” Meyer said, referring to the changes, “we treat them like vending machines and propane tanks,” which are required to be placed close to a business entrance rather than stand on their own in the parking lot.

Under the proposal, bins must be placed within 50 feet of an entrance. They will be limited to taking up five cubic yards, which Meyer likens to the size of a large, convenience-store ice machine.

“I’ve seen pictures of some that are the size of Dumpsters,” he said.

Bins also must identify who operates them, provide a phone number and clearly state a limit on donations.

The problem is partly an aesthetic issue for the city. At one location on Museum Road near the intersection with Celanese Road, city officials found two bins operated by the same company across the street from each other. Inother jurisdictions, competing bins have been lined up next to each other at the same location. The bins can create problems when they are overflowing with material or when donors leave clothes in a pile at the side.

In at least one instance, planners found a bin at a location without the permission of the property owner. Randy Graham, a Realtor with Sperry Van Ness – Southern Commercial Real Estate and a planning commission member, said a bin appeared one day at the Millwood Plantation property his company manages.

“It was hard to determine if it was legit,” he said. The phone number printed on the bin appeared to be non-working, and nobody on site during business hours ever saw the bin being emptied. “We didn’t know what its true purpose was.”

That’s why new rules would limit placement to the immediate vicinity of a business.

“Hopefully, nobody would have the guts to put one there without permission,” Meyer said.

But some clothes recyclers have challenged the new rules. Some companies spoke out at planning commission meetings, mostly citing the location requirement.

“People like the convenience of being able to jump out of their car and jump back in,” said Michael Reed, chief financial officer with MAC Recycling of Owings Mills, Md. “It’s absurd to classify this as a vending machine.”

MAC, or Mid-Atlantic Clothing Recycling, collects used clothes in the U.S. and ships them to vendors in Central America. The company has a bin outside Food Lion on Heckle Boulevard, but Reed worries MAC won’t be able to operate at that location if the new rules come into force. While the city would require the bin be placed beside a business entrance, he argues other regulations won’t permit placement under the store’s overhang because it’s a fire hazard.

The new rules could drive the recycling business out of Rock Hill entirely, Reed said.

“We’re all for regulation, because we can see a rogue company come in and set up a bin next to ours,” Reed said. He worries the rules “single out” companies like his, especially because the city can’t prohibit for-profit companies from collecting donations. An earlier regulation tried, but that distinction wasn’t legally enforceable.

“Only 15 percent of clothing is recycled (by for-profit companies),” Reed said, “and you’re not going to change that by eliminating options.”

But Meyer argues businesses prefer the new rules and says they won’t prohibit operators from collecting donations the same way they do now.

Donors will drop off clothes by the entrance “the same way they drop off their grandma,” he said. “They will still park at the curb, but now they will have more eyes on them than in the corner of the parking lot.”

This story was originally published July 8, 2015 at 8:19 PM with the headline "New Rock Hill rules mean your drop-off clothes bin could be moving. Or going away.."