Recycling: The need to keep Charleston County green

Image by TheDigitelImage by 20091015-recylce.jpg Recycling bins at the new Mount Pleasant Waterfront Park.

By Paul Robinson

"When you recycle one aluminum can, you save 95% of the energy that was used to originally make it. That 95% is enough energy to run a household television for three hours," says Jenny Bloom, Charleston County's Recycling Educator.

The Garden Club of Isle of Palms, founded in 1948, recently gathered at The IOP Exchange Building for an evening with guest speaker Jenny Bloom. Bloom's enthusiasm resonated throughout the room as she explained Charleston County's current recycling programs, the importance of teaching young people about the impact of recycling and what everyone can do to help.

"When a plastic bottle goes in to the normal trash can and not the recycling blue bin, that plastic bottle will sit for 400 to 1000 years and never fully break down," explained Bloom. "Plastic bottles are not bio-degradable, they are photo-degradable, meaning they only break down into smaller pieces. You are looking, at best, at seven life generations until that one plastic bottle deteriorates, but only into smaller pieces."

Head over to the Folly Current and learn more about Charleston County's Recycling.

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