By Jeff Dennis
There is no public curbside pick-up for recycling in Colleton County and the main reason for this is the added expense of dedicated trucks and the workers to drive them, according to county officials. Despite the lack of residential curbside recycling, there are still options for Colleton residents who want to recycle.
A place that takes in solid waste as well as recycling is now called A Convenience Center. Whether the recycling is single-stream, where all items are placed together in a bin, or separate stream all the recycled items will exit the county for processing.
Checking in with the Town of Edisto Beach, town Administrator Iris Hill explains their current set up for recycling efforts. “The Town of Edisto renewed the garbage hauling contracts in 2019,” said Hill. “We were keen to start a curbside recycling program then but hit a roadblock when the cost to haul the garbage doubled. So, then Town Council decided not to implement the recycling program due to the increased resources being allocated for garbage removal.
“We have a convenience center set up at Town Hall for items such as plastic, glass, carboard and paper,” said Hill. “Our contractor is Republic Waste and they haul the recycled items to a third-party recycler. The cost for this recycling service is still substantial.
“In general, residents at the Beach and the island of Edisto use the convenience center, more than the seasonal renters. The most popular item recycled here are aluminum cans, which go to the Burned Children’s Fund via Colleton Fire Department.”
The Director of Public Works for the City of Walterboro is Michael Crosby. He confirms that Walterboro does not offer any recycling to its residents, but he says the city uses the county’s convenience centers for recycling options.
“We do not offer curbside recycling in Walterboro, and our residents utilize the County convenience centers,” said Crosby. “We did roll out a pilot program a few years ago, and provided green bins for a single-stream recycling service. The recycled items were then hauled to a facility in Allendale, but the recycling business began changing and we met some challenges. First off, if someone puts garbage in the recycling bin, then that can no longer go to a recycling center.
“The Allendale facility closed, and we searched for alternate contracts,” said Crosby. “The single-stream curbside recycling pilot program was free, but then the recyclers had more supply and demand issues. For instance, recyclers can sometimes vary what they are taking, like wanting newspaper and cardboard, but not glass. When looking at separate stream recycling, we didn’t have the resources to continue that way. Needing multiple truck sand additional manpower is a big deal when running a curbside pick-up service. After a year of hard work on the pilot program, we came to the reluctant conclusion not to continue this service.”
According to Sylvia Singleton, coordinator of Colleton County Recycling, the county’s recycled products go from the Colleton Convenience Centers to the Sunoco Recycling in North Charleston. “We handle the recycled goods by commodity,” said John Oliver, Sunoco Recycling spokesman for the Lowcountry. “It comes into our facility, we make use of the cardboard and paper, and then move the rest downstream. For instance, glass can be ground down to silicate material at a dedicated recycler.
“We are in the recycling business to use reclaimed cardboard and paper at our Sunoco Mill in Hartsville,” said Oliver. “Our mill requires a significant supply of paper to run. If you think about other mills that have trees stacked up to utilize, that’s because they are making a higher grade of paper product. Our plant utilizes recycled products in order to make a wide variety of products, and that list can be found on our website.”
While there is no public service single-stream recycling pick-up in Colleton County now, the good news is that some of these products are going towards local S.C. business and towards Children’s Health Services.
