Despite Charleston County’s educational efforts, too many of us still “wishcycle.”
That’s the term county staffers use to describe placing materials in the county’s blue carts that may be recyclable somewhere else, but not in the county’s brand new sorting center. “Wishcycling” is a lot catchier than “non-recyclable contamination,” and we hope that difference will make an impression:
County residents need to understand that just because something is recyclable doesn’t mean they should put it in their blue cart.
For instance, plastic grocery bags can be recycled — several grocery stores have containers to accept them — but not by the county’s recycling center, mainly because the bags can clog the sorting machinery. These bags pose one of the biggest problems.
Also, the county accepts metal and tin cans but cannot process other metal, such as the nearly foot-long Bowie knife someone tossed in a blue cart. Other metals only may be recycled at scrap dealers.
And the county’s service centers accept electronic waste for recycling, but flat screen TVs, computer monitors and parts, printers and the like need to be deposited at one of eight staffed convenience centers, not placed in blue carts. These centers also take tires, used motor oil and batteries.
Another big problem is food waste, which not only isn’t recyclable but also can taint other material that is. It’s also just plain nasty.
Wishcycling is something the county is having to take more seriously since its $30 million, 82,000-square-foot Material Recovery Facility opened late last year on Palmetto Commerce Parkway. The sorting facility is run by a private contractor that has a right to reject recycling loads deemed too contaminated.
And some have been rejected already, meaning that wishcycling not only wastes county taxpayers’ time and money but also results in more recyclable material being sent to the landfill.
County Councilman Brantley Moody, head of the county’s Environmental Management Committee, has noted that the county recycling program’s real value is reducing the volume that must be buried at the county’s landfill. Once the current Bees Ferry Landfill is full, the county will struggle to find a central, suitable site.
But for the recycling center to fulfill its potential to minimize landfill waste, county residents need to feed it a clean stream of recyclables, he noted, summing up the problem of wishcycling this way: “If you treat your ‘blue bin’ like your ‘green bin,’ this will not work.” (Trash cans in the city of Charleston are green.)
So we’re pleased that county staff has set a schedule beginning this month to go around the county, peeking into recycling carts and hoping to engage residents about what should — and should not — be placed there. Those with contaminants will get an “Oops” tag with the message that only glass bottles and jars, aluminum and steel cans, plastic bottles and containers, paperboard, cardboard and paper belong in the blue bin. Those hoping to join the educational effort may contact LaMonica Smalls, [email protected].
The new recycling center should be seen as a big step forward — until it opened last year the county had to ship its recyclables to other counties or, when that was not possible, bury them at Bees Ferry — but it only will work if we all bear in mind the distinction between the material the center is set up to handle and the stuff we might wish it did.
Reach Robert Behre at 843-937-5771. Follow him on Twitter @RobertFBehre.
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