Sustainability Committee – Solid Waste & Recycling

The Sustainability Advisory Committee of the GIC has been working closely with Beaufort County and the Town of Hilton Head Island to improve the caliber of recycling. To this end, two initiatives have been implemented.

Background

Beaufort County is aware that the Hickory Hill Land Fill is rapidly coming to the end of its useful life and the need to step up recycling efforts county-wide is long past due. The Sustainability Committee has been working with the County and the Town of Hilton Head Island to expand the availability of recycling in a more comprehensive manner. This effort is aimed at reducing the number of recyclable materials that would otherwise end up in the landfill. A look at the pricing structure at the Hickory Hill Land Fill as part of the County’s contract with Waste Management is a key first step.

The Initiatives

As of August, 2024

  • The Town of Hilton Head Island has contracted with a new trash and recycling provider, i2recycle, a local recycling company owned by Mike Bennett for trash and recycling pick up at all the Town’s beaches and beach parks. The objective of this new contract is to make incremental improvements to the Town’s messaging regarding the quality of the recyclables collected. To that end, i2recycle will be making recommendations to the Town as to how to improve the recycling program in these areas by year-end. 
  • On July 1, 2024, i2recycle,  took over the recycling of glass, aluminum & metal cans, and mixed paper at the 4 convenience centers in Beaufort County from Waste Management to improve the recycling experience, lower the incidents of contamination of the materials, and streamline the transport of the materials for processing.  i2recycle is not responsible for the items collected in the upper area of the HHI center – i.e. cardboard, household trash, yard waste, etc.

Consistent with all recycling efforts, success is highly dependent on effectively educating our community members and visitors about which items can be recycled. Our convenience center here on Hilton Head Island has brand-new containers and signage. For now, a trained group of community volunteers are helping staff the recycling center a few days each week to provide all customers with the new guidelines and help them sort the recyclables they brought to the center. Eventually, i2recycle will have all the centers staffed.

The objective is to improve both the quantity and quality of the material collected so it can be more efficiently transported and used to make new products.

Overnight all recycling containers are pulled and the materials are taken to i2recycle’s brand-new MRF (Materials Recovery Facility) in Hardeeville.

Beaufort County is posting all the new guidelines on their social media sites and emails have been sent to all convenience center pass holders. Additionally, community members can upload the mobile app “RecycleCoach” to keep all the guidelines handy for reference and keep abreast of recycling news/updates. Recycle Coach can be downloaded in the app store from any desktop computer and mobile device from the Google Store and the Apple Store.  For more information, please contact Victoria Hoffman, Solid Waste and Recycling Program Manager, at 843-255-2735.

New guidelines are:

  • Cardboard – corrugated only, must be clean, dry, and flattened
  • Plastic – #1 and #2 only – bottles and jugs only – with caps removed. No need to crush the bottles. No jugs larger than a gallon can be accepted.
  • Aluminum, steel, tin – food and beverage cans – lids removed
  • Glass – bottles and jars, tops removed (clear, brown, and green accepted). Larger than a pint and no bigger than a gallon.
  • Mixed paper – junk mail, newspaper, magazines, phone books, office paper, cereal boxes, beverage boxes, shoes boxes (corrugated cardboard is collected in the upper area of the convenience center) All paper should be at least 4” x 4” in size.

Items NOT being collected:

  • Plastic bags of any type
  • “Clamshell” containers – such as berry and salad containers
  • No crumbled, shredded paper; no toilet paper rolls, tissues, napkins
  • Foam, Styrofoam of any type

Click the image to download document.

Next Steps

The Committee is seeking to work with the County and the Town of Hilton Head Island to establish Transfer Centers at key locations throughout Beaufort County including on Hilton Head Island where trash and recyclables can be temporarily stored, reduced, and transported in a more economical manner to both the land fill, if appropriate, and to an end-user of the recyclable materials such as aluminum, glass, plastic, cardboard, mulched landscape debris, and paper. The committee is also advocating for a pilot project for an area-wide trash and recycling service for residential property to better serve both visitors and full-time property owners

Use the links below for detailed information on solid waste and recycling in the Town of Hilton Head Island and Beaufort County.