A Democratic state representative from south St. Louis County wants the county to slow down and rethink its effort to set up eight trash collection districts in the unincorporated area.

The county administration, run by Democrats, is pushing the plan. Several Republican elected and party officials from South County have been outspoken opponents.

“I’m against it,” State Rep. Pat Yaeger, a Democrat who represents Lemay and part of Affton, said of the county’s plan. “With compromise, it could be a good plan,” she said on Tuesday. County officials, she said “have not listened to the people.”

The county should start trash districts on a small scale, establishing them in areas where householders want them, she said. “If…(districts are) successful there, then the county could take it forward,” she said.

Yaeger has been in the state House of Representatives since 2003. She has experience dealing with trash collection issues, having served on the county’s solid waste commission. She dealt with trash problems when she worked with Project Lemay, a county-sponsored community improvement effort, in the mid 1990s.

Currently, householders in the unincorporated area arrange for their own trash collection. The county plans calls for it to select a single hauler for each district through bids. The haulers would collect trash and recyclable material once a week and provide bulky pickup twice a year.

Most municipalities have a single hauler collect trash, but in Florissant, Ladue. Town and Country and four small municipalities, householders must arrange for trash service.

Yaeger said she had been concerned about details of the county plan even before it became highly controversial.

Among the issues are what the plan would do to small haulers who might be unable to bid for an entire district, she said. Some areas are satisfied with their small hauler and want to keep the current service, Yaeger said.

Only subdivisions can opt out of the county plan. Some householders cannot take advantage of that provision because they do not live in subdivisions or lack functioning subdivision boards of trustees, she said.

Yaeger said some people may be using the trash-district issue to further their political agendas, including incorporation of south St. Louis County.

Tuesday’s St Louis County Council meeting saw some political sparing about trash districts. Speaking in the public forum part of the meeting, Celeste Witzel, Republican committeewoman from Oakville Township, criticized Democrats for planning the districts.

County Councilman Mike O’Mara, D-Florissant, pointed out that a Republican-controlled council authorized the districts when it adopted a new waste management code in December, 2006. The action came at the last meeting of that council.

Councilwoman Colleen Wasinger, R-Town and Country, noted the council adopted the new code unanimously that day.

Councilman Greg Quinn, R-Ballwin, indicated the vote might have been different in 2006 had the public been aware of the code’s implications.

The vehement criticism of districts started in March of last year after the county staff began work on establishing the districts.