COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Department of Environmental Services (SCDES) encourages residents to be good stewards of the environment this holiday season by making the effort to recycle materials and help reduce food waste.
Celebrations this time of year tend to include packaging, decorations, and lots of holiday parties and meals – all of which increases the amount of household waste produced by an estimated 25% from Thanksgiving to the New Year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). South Carolinians generate about 5.7 pounds of waste per person per day, according to SCDES. Applying EPA’s estimate, that amount grows to 7.1 pounds per day during the holiday season.
“Unnecessary waste can be prevented if we make environmentally sound decisions while enjoying the holidays,” said Richard Chesley, Section Manager with SCDES’s Office of Solid Waste Reduction & Recycling. “We encourage South Carolinians to consider using reusable bags or boxes for gift-giving instead of wrapping paper and to be conservative in how much food they purchase to prevent food waste during the holidays.”
Luckily, recycling right this holiday season is easier than ever with the new Recycle Here SC mobile phone app that recently launched in South Carolina through a partnership between SCDES, PalmettoPride, and the South Carolina Beverage Association. The app, which is available for free, consolidates information for South Carolina residents on what, where, and how to recycle different items at different locations across the state.
These important tips can help have the biggest impact with recycling:
Make sure to recycle right. Items placed in the recycling bin that can’t be recycled in your local program are called “contamination.” If a load of recyclables has too much contamination, it gets thrown away instead of being recycled. Download the Recycle Here SC mobile phone app to get rid of the confusion about what to recycle.
Be mindful of hard-to-manage items. Some common items like lithium-ion batteries, electronics, and household hazardous waste can be recycled but should not go into your recycling bin. These items require special handling to make sure they don’t hurt people or the environment. For help with these items, visit SCDES’s webpage about recycling hard-to-manage items or call 1-800-768-7348. For more info on safely handling and recycling batteries, go to BeBatterySmart.com.
Keep it clean. Make sure items you recycle are empty and relatively clean. No liquids, food or residue should go in your recycling bin.
Reducing and reusing support recycling. Recycling can be supported by reducing the amount of household waste that’s generated and by reusing or repurposing items.
The Don’t Waste Food SC public education campaign, which is coordinated by SCDES, the S.C. Department of Commerce and many ambassadors around the state, provides helpful resources to prevent food waste. The campaign also encourages residents to donate perishable food and non-perishable food to local food banks, pantries, and shelters that will be given to food-insecure individuals and families.
Learn about food safety, what food is acceptable, and local donation opportunities at des.sc.gov/dwfsc.
Additional ways to cut back on food and food-packaging waste include:
Meal planning. Only buying the amount of ingredients you need for each dish helps reduce food waste.
Do a head count. Knowing how many people to prepare food for helps reduce the amount of prepared but unneeded food.
Reusable containers for leftovers. Send your guests home with leftovers in a reusable container. This helps eliminate single-use materials like plastic wrap and keeps large quantities of food from going unused and spoiling in your fridge.
Composting. If you can’t donate or reuse your leftovers, another option is composting. Sending food waste to a composting facility or composting at home can improve soil health and structure, increase water retention, support native plants, and reduce the need for fertilizers and pesticides.
“We can all take steps to reduce the amount of household waste that’s created during the holiday season, and doing so can help bring us closer to achieving our goal of having 50% of the state’s municipal solid waste be recycled by 2030,” Chesley said. “Proper recycling and food waste reduction also supports SCDES in its everyday mission of protecting and preserving our state’s air, land water, and coastal resources now and for future generations.”
More information about local recycling programs, proper recycling tips, and food waste reduction efforts are all available at des.sc.gov/recycling.
