Image by Flickr user Sangudo
First reporting, updates at the bottom: Presently if you are a restaurant or other business in Charleston County your choices for recycling are to not do it at all or pay to have it done.
And that's a scenario that often results in little commercial recycling of uncountable discarded boxes, bottles, and cans. Not a particuarly good one when the county is looking to achieve a 40% recycling rate of trash following the shutdown of its incinerator.
But officials are taking the first step to try and change that by starting a previously alluded to pilot program in specific areas of the county that will be free of charge for now and allow the company to figure if and how much it should charge for the service.
Recycled for the pilot program will be cardboard, mixed paper, plastics #1-7, glass containers, and aluminum and steel cans. All materials will be processed at the County’s recycling center located at 13 Romney Street in downtown Charleston.
For more information on the Commercial Recycling Pilot Program, contact the Charleston County Environmental Management Department at (843) 720-7111 or visit http://www.charlestoncounty.org.
Update December 9: The Post and Courier has a well rounded follow that flushes out many details on the program that start January 24.
Among some of the questions it begins to address: Where the plan is starting, and how concerned the private sector is.
