Plastic recycling goes way beyond the bottle

In the withering heat Wednesday, Jenny Bloom picked through stories-high piles of smelly recyclables at the Charleston County Recycling Center, visibly excited as she pointed out items that would have been sent to the landfill just a day earlier.

Cat-litter buckets. To-go food containers. Even broken recycling bins.

"It's coming in anyway," said Bloom, the county's recycling educator. "Now we just have a place for it."

Bloom's enthusiasm stemmed from the fact that Charleston County residents will now be able to recycle nearly all plastic containers because of an expansion of the county's recycling program.

The county, which announced the change Wednesday, previously recycled plastic containers only when they had necks and were stamped with the recycling code 1 or 2 on the bottom.

Plastic wrap, plastic bags and polystyrene -- commonly known by the name brand Styrofoam -- are still not recyclable in the county.

For county residents, this means less sorting through trash, County Council member Colleen Condon said.

"Now people don't need to turn their cups and bottles upside down to see if they're recyclable," said Condon, also chairman of the County Recycling Committee.

Strictly speaking, the recycling program now includes plastics with the recycling code 1, 2, 3, 5 or 7, with 4 and 6 being excluded. Still, even if no number is visible, Condon said it's best to put it in the recycling bin.

"Put it right in there; we'd rather have it," she said.

Condon said the change is a step toward the county's goal of recycling 40 percent of its solid waste. No cutoff date was set for the goal, but Condon said the county is on track to meet it in the next 18 to 24 months.

Hitting the 40 percent mark for solid-waste recycling would be no small feat for Charleston County: A study last year put the rate at 10 percent. Still, it is modest compared with recycling front-runners, such as San Francisco, which reported a rate of 72 percent last year.

For homeowners, an added bonus is a slightly lower tax burden, with a one-time $25 tax credit knocking the solid-waste user fee down from $99 to $74 on the next property tax bill. The tax credit comes from reduced recycling costs per ton of waste.

The recycling process will be unchanged on the county's end, where none of the recyclables are melted and only the 1s and 2s with necks are sorted out. The only thing changing is a new set of buyers who are interested in mixed plastics, which the county ships out in 1,200-pound bales.

"Even if we only get a dollar a ton for your recyclables, that's still better than county residents paying $18 to $35 a ton to put it in a landfill," Condon said.

Do's and don'ts

Charleston County residents can now recycle nearly all plastic containers. Here are some do's and don'ts under the newly expanded system.

DO

--Recycle all plastic containers except Styrofoam.

--Unscrew all bottle caps, and include the bottle caps in the bin.

--Put plastics in the same commingled bin as glass, aluminum, steel, tin and aerosol cans.

--Put paper and cardboard products in a separate bin.

--Pick up a free extra bin at any of the locations listed at recycle.charlestoncounty.org.

DON'T

--Recycle Styrofoam, plastic shopping bags or plastic wrap.

Sorting your stuff

How to recycle plastics in Charleston County:

--Residents with curbside service can now place all plastic containers in their co-mingled bin (non-sorted bin of glass, aluminum, steel, tin, aerosol cans and all plastic containers) at the curb alongside their separate bin or bags of paper, paperboard and cardboard recyclables.

--Residents who use any of Charleston County's drop-site containers should add all newly accepted plastics in the co-mingled side of the drop site.

--Curbside recycling in Charleston County is collected bi-weekly in urban areas starting at 7 a.m.

--Residents in rural parts of the county can use drop sites and Convenience Centers for recycling services. Drop-site locations are open 24 hours, seven days a week and are not staffed. Convenience Centers are staffed by Environmental Management Department employees.

On the web: Want to know the rules for recycling in your county? Find your county on the map linked at recycle.charlestoncounty.org.