West Ashley, SC - Charleston County workers are sorting through 12 tons of smelly trash from around the county, looking for things that can be used again.

 

“Going through really carefully, actually defining into 29 different categories to analyze what people are really throwing away,” said Jenny Bloom with Charleston County Environmental Management.

 

The garbage is divided into groups like paper, glass and tin. The collected data will then be used to determine better ways to keep recyclable materials out of the landfill.

 

“It helps us confirm what we know is out there what we need to find a market for, things that we are really going to be working on to improve the system,” Bloom said.

 

Kessler Consulting is conducting the study and will help the county come up with a plan to reach their recycling goal of 40% of waste. They say studies like this can bring about simple, long-term solutions.

 

“We often identify how much of that waste is still recyclable. So, sometimes if the paper number is very high we look to add those paper materials into the curbside recycling program,” explained Mitch Kessler with Kessler Consulting Inc.

 

The county hopes to receive the results of the study by next week.

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