GOOD NEWS: You can recycle your Christmas tree

Staff reports  |  You can “go green” this holiday season by recycling your Christmas tree.

Here are instructions from Charleston County’s Environmental Management Department:

• Remember to remove all décor such as lights, tinsel, ornaments, etc.
• Some municipalities will pick them up curbside, or they can be taken to a convenience center. The trees picked up curbside are transported to the Bees Ferry Compost Facility to be ground and composted.
• Residents who drop off a tree at the Bees Ferry Compost Facility from Jan. 3 – 9, 2017, will receive a free bag of compost (one bag per customer).

• All paper, including gift wrapping, cardboard and commingled products (plastics #1-7, glass containers and aluminum and steel cans) can also be recycled through the curbside program and at the numerous drop-site locations and convenience centers located throughout the county. The convenience centers also accept used motor oil and cooking oil, electronics, household hazardous materials, batteries, paint, compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and holiday light strands.
• Click here to see a clever video on holiday recycling.

In other good news:

• New campaign.  The Charleston School of Law Foundation is launching a $300,000 fundraising campaign to purchase computer terminals for specialized online legal research, remodel a library meeting room and hire an additional research librarian.  The campaign seeks to match an anonymous $125,000 donation and is being conducted to honor the late U.S. District Judge Sol Blatt Jr., for whom the school’s library is named.
• Call for speakers.  The Center for Women is seeking speakers to encourage and inspire women personally and professionally at its annual conference, “Act. Aspire. Achieve,” which will be held Feb. 23.  Speaker applications are due Jan. 6, 2017.  More.
• Pacesetter.  Congratulations to Michelle Mapp, chief executive officer of the S.C. Community Loan Fund, for being named the 2016 recipient of the Marjorie Amos-Frazier Pacesetter Award, which is presented annually to a local resident for lasting civic and humanitarian service.  Read Mapp’s speech.