By Delayna Earley
The Island News
Curious about recycling in Beaufort County?
Beaufort County held a series of tours of the facility where they do the county’s recycling on Friday, Nov. 15.
The facility, which is in Hardeeville, is owned by i2recycle, who Beaufort County Solid Waste and Recycling recently contracted with to handle the county’s recycling needs. The recycling that the facility processes is the recycling that is collected at the county’s convenience centers.
The new contract went into effect on August 1, and this event was a chance to pull back the curtain and show members of the community who are interested how things are done.
“One of the biggest reasons for that was the need for higher transparency in the process,” said Valentina Palacio the Environmental Education Coordinator with Beaufort County Public Works. “i2 is also a facility owned by a community member. He seems to have more integrity.”
This is the first time that the county has held tours of the recycling facility, but Palacio said that they would absolutely love to hold more tour days in the future.
The tour attracted a total of 50 people, which Palacio said was a great turnout.
“I have a 40-person wait list of people who submitted their information, but I had to turn them down due to reaching capacity,” said Palacio.
Participants of the tour not only saw the facility and what it does, but adults over the age of 18 were able to sort some of the recycling into bins as well.
Important information about the way that the company does their recycling was also shared with the participants, so they know better what is able to be recycled there and what is not.
For example, all caps and lids must be removed from plastic and glass bottles before recycling. And plastic and glass items should be larger than a cup but smaller than a gallon.
Beaufort county residents are asked not to bag their recyclables and recyclable paper must be larger than a standard envelope.
Finally, bottles and cans should not be crushed.
For more information, visit Beaufortcountysc.gov/recycle or contact Beaufort County Solid Waste and Recycling at 843-255-2736.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
