Trash company promises to retrain staff on recycling

BLUFFTON -- After a waste hauler on Hilton Head Island was discovered mixing recyclables with regular trash, the company said Thursday it is retraining its local drivers and supervisors to prevent it from happening again.

"All of the drivers and supervisors were instructed not to co-mingle recyclables" with garbage, said Will Flower, a spokesman at Republic Waste's headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

"We had everyone sign a certification stating that they've been instructed to not collect recyclables with solid waste, and our supervisors are going to be monitoring this situation to make sure no mixing occurs."

Over the course of two months, an Island Packet reporter watched a Republic driver on multiple occasions pick up recyclables and trash from homes, villas and apartments in southern Beaufort County. That truck, filled with mixed recyclables and trash, went to Hickory Hill landfill in Jasper County, was weighed and driven onto the landfill's hills of trash.

Flower said the company couldn't figure out why that kind of mixing would have occurred. "That's what we can't understand," he said.

In general, recycling is difficult in some parts of Beaufort County, like Hilton Head Island, said county solid waste and recycling director Jim Minor.

Minor said that in those areas, not all residents recycle and neighborhoods are served by many different hauling companies.

Some parts of the county have recycling programs where all households are required to set out recyclables and they are served by one hauling company, which makes it more profitable for the hauler.

"It's much easier to pick up every house on a street ... than every third or fourth and fifth one," Minor said.

Recycling on Hilton Head "is just so labor and time intensive that it doesn't make sense for them," he said. "They can't do it and offer a service at an economically feasible rate. It just doesn't work."

Waste haulers on the island have to offer recycling, according to a town ordinance, but recycling is not required. Customers are charged extra if they opt for recycling.

Flower, of Republic Waste, didn't address the issue of whether picking up recyclables on the island is profitable. But he added, "We have an obligation to provide the service, and that's what we're going to do."