Mom Goes Green

Myrtle Beach Part II (Scenario: Me. My family. Myrtle Beach vacation. Ungodly amounts of recyclables. No where to take them…no recycling options in sight.)

…So, what did I do?

You guessed ‘er, Chester. I stood in the kitchen of our condo. I crushed cans. I smashed plastic bottles. I tore apart and flattened boxes. I gathered and straightened newspaper. I condensed everything… every last little thing… into the smallest amount of trash bag space possible and…

We drove it home. ALLLL the way back to Cleveland. Alongside beach chairs and boogie boards. Alongside favorite pillows and stuffed animals. Alongside food that never got consumed… in the car. A 703 mile cruise to “Recycleville”.

And honestly…it felt great!

This is the pile that we brought home. Keep in mind that it is smashed and crushed and flattened to extremes (so you don’t see the true volume), but would you take a look at what WOULD HAVE been sent to a landfill if we hadn’t brought it home? It literally FILLED our recycling can. Our 3 foot tall recycling can.

What bothers me the most is not that we had to drive it home(!) but what in the hell is going on in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, that a recycling program is not set-up for all of the hundreds upon hundreds of resorts and hotels? How much money floods into that place every year and how pitiful that they offer no options, whatsoever, and have not taken responsibility for even the most fundamental step in environmental consciousness.

Do you know that 14 MILLION PEOPLE visit Myrtle Beach each year?!?!? If they accepted only cans and bottles, can you imagine the volume? If they only offered vacationers a choice. But there are no choices. It’s one, big pit of overconsumption and waste.

I need to do something. What? I’m not yet sure. Contact the Mayor? Contact the head of their Sanitation and Waste Department? Contact the Resort Manager? I just don’t know. But I assure you I’m going to do something. This isn’t going to be the end of the story. I promise.

So, a little secret that I didn’t share was that I’ve been away for some time vacationing in Myrtle Beach with my family. And you didn’t even know, did ya?!?!

We stay in a condo on the beach at a wonderful oceanside resort and we were returning this year for the fourth time. We obviously love the place and all of the amenities, however, this time I’m a bit greener than I was last year.

By our first full day I realized that I had been collecting all of my recyclables but had no clue what to do with them. I doubted that daily housekeeping service would take them anywhere besides a trash dumpster. While I was bothered NOT to see any recycling receptacles around the resort, I assumed that there had to be a large recycling bin somewhere on the premises.

So I called the front desk to ask where to deposit them. The woman I spoke to actually laughed. She said “oh no, ma’am. We don’t have any recycling receptacles.” I asked if there were any drop-off points at retail centers, schools, churches… she laughed “oh no, ma’am. We don’t have those either.”

Later that night we had to stop at a gas station. I actually went inside, knowing that the clerk HAD to be local, and asked the same question. The two people in line behind me were obviously local too because they both laughed along with the clerk. I was promptly informed that there were no drop-off sites, anywhere.

I still continued collecting ALL of our recyclables, despite having no where to take them…

Until day number five. As I flipped through TV channels trying to find Headline News, I flipped past the Community Access channel and saw a blue recycling container flash by. I flipped back and started screaming at my poor husband to “write down this number!!!” It was to the local waste and sanitation department.

I called them and asked the question…again. This time no one laughed…however, I was informed that “no ma’am. We don’t have any public receptacles. Only bins for homes. If you want to, I suppose you could drive them down here to our facility.” (…30 minutes away, of course.)

Are…you…serious? Myrtle Beach! What gives?!? Moreover, what’s up with what ISN’T happening?!?

So, what did I do? You’ll have to come back to find out….

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Who would have thought I could make my MomGoesGreen blog even greener!