Composting, Recycling, & Waste Reduction

Compost Your Pumpkin

Through the month of November, Bees Ferry Landfill will have a bin next to its food waste drop-off site for your pumpkins. Bring your clean pumpkins, big or small, carved or not.

What is a “clean pumpkin”?:

  • If you’ve painted, glued, or glittered your pumpkin, just take a veggie peeler and scrape that stuff off. It’s not compostable.
  • If you burned a drippy candle, go ahead and scrape out that wax. It’s not compostable either.
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Residential Drop-Off Composting Sites

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Residents in the Charleston region can recycle food scraps for FREE at participating drop sites. The food scraps are then sent to the Bees Ferry Compost Facility, instead of the landfill, to be recycled into compost. Check out Charleston's residential composting dashboard.

Participating Drop Site Locations:

  • Ackerman Park (West Ashley)
  • Bees Ferry Convenience Center (West Ashley)
  • Carmen R. Bunch Park (Isle of Palms)
  • Charleston County Public Services (North Charleston)
  • Corrine Jones Park (Peninsula)
  • Edgar Allen Poe Library (Sullivan’s Island)
  • Edwards Park (Mount Pleasant)
  • Elliotborough Park (Peninsula)
  • Folly Beach Community Center (Folly Beach)
  • Governors Park (Daniel Island)
  • IOP Marina (Isle of Palms)
  • James Island Recreation Complex (James Island)
  • Johns Island Library (Johns Island)
  • Jones Center Recreation Complex (Mount Pleasant)
  • Medway Park (James Island)
  • Moultrie Playground (Peninsula)
  • Park West Recreation Complex (Mount Pleasant)
  • Randolph Park (West Ashley)
  • Reva Ridge Drive (Johns Island)
  • Singleton Park (Peninsula)

Residents must sign up at Charleston-SC.gov to participate.

To learn more about composting using Charleston’s food waste drop-off sites and backyard composting, attend a free composting workshop.

Sign-up here: Charleston-SC.gov/Composting

Business Composting

The County owns the McGill Bees Ferry Compost Facility in West Ashley, where 100% of incoming yard waste, nearly 75,000 tons a year, is processed. As part of the County's Food Waste Composting Program, pre- and post-consumer food waste generated at local restaurants, cafeterias, school, grocery stores, and other producers is delivered to the McGill Bees Ferry Compost facility, where it is mixed with yard waste to create a nutrient-rich soil amendment: compost. This facility is the largest compost producer in the state and one of the largest on the East Coast.

To learn more about the County's composting program, visit the Department of Environmental Management's website: Charleston County's Composting Program.

Resident Recycling

Charleston County's Department of Environment Management oversees recycling collection. For more information about recycling pick-up or dropsites and to learn more about what you can recycle, please visit their website: Recycling Convenience Centers & Dropsites. In November the County passed a resolution describing the importance of all different types of recycling. Read the resolution here.

You can also view the convenience centers and dropsites on the map below:

Click the button below to load the map or open it in a new window.

Oyster Shell Recycling

Shells are collected by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and used to rebuild oyster reefs. Learn more about oyster shell recycling at Charleston-SC.gov/Oyster-Recycling.

County Electronic Waste (Staff Only Program)

Did you know all of the County government's electronic waste (e-waste) is handed over to an e-waste recycling vendor? In Fiscal Year 2022 and Fiscal Year 2023, over 24,000 pounds of e-waste was collected. Items include:

  • Retired servers, network, and rack equipment
  • Retired printers, scanners
  • Retired PCs, monitors, docking stations, keyboard, mouse that were purchased and not part of a lease
  • Retired network, power cords
  • Miscellaneous items like label printers, speakers, webcams etc. that are not functional

Battery Recycling for County Employees

In 2022, Charleston County's Green Liaisons program started a battery drop-off program for County employees to deposit batteries in bins located in the ten County buildings with the most staff. The batteries are recycled at Bees Ferry Convenience Center. Green Liaisons is a County green team comprised of volunteers from County departments that focus on environmental programming and staff education. It important to recycle batteries because if they are placed in landfills, the toxic materials can leak into the soil, which can then reach the water supply. In 2023, staff recycled 4,520 batteries with our Law Enforcement Center staff recycling over 1,200 batteries!

Single-use Plastic Ordinance

In November 2019, the County, along with the City of Charleston and the Town of James Island, adopted an ordinance to eliminate the use of single-use plastic carryout and merchandise bags, as well as certain plastic carryout food and packaging items. The ordinance went into effect on January 1, 2020 and applies to the County's unincorporated areas.