A Conversation with Maureen Mulligan, Georgetown County’s Environmentalist

By Karen Owens
Publisher

Did you know Georgetown County enjoys a recycling rate of almost 40%? Or that they coordinate community litter pickups that have collected more than 600,000 pounds of trash off county roads over the last four years?

As someone who has been active in the state’s recycling community for many years, it was a pleasure to sit down with Maureen Mulligan, a botanist by education who has served as Georgetown County’s Environmentalist since 2020, to learn more about her efforts to promote sustainability throughout our community. She also gave me an impressive tour of the county’s Environmental Education Campus that includes an Environmental Education Center, community vegetable garden, native plant gardens, trails, and more. She described plans for significant upgrades planned for a museum quality exhibit on the importance of circularity to keep awareness top-of-mind with area residents and students.

Georgetown SC Gazette:

How do you engage our citizens to promote the importance of the three R’s – reduce, reuse and recycle?

Maureen Mulligan:

We accomplish that through a number of activities. I frequently make presentations to civic organizations, Homeowners Associations, church groups and others to talk about the significance of sustainable practices in our lives as well as the impact on our environment. I attend community events, such as the recent Ag & Art Tour, to share information and resources with the people who come out to these events to learn more about taking care of our natural resources.

ReRe the snake

I also have a great partnership with our county library system to host monthly workshops, such as the recent Composting 101 Workshop we held at the Carvers Bay library in July. For that workshop, I walked them through how composting works and gave out free composting tumblers that I secured through an SCDES (South Carolina Department of Environmental Services) grant to each attendee.

Another great resource we have is our Environmental Education Center, where we host school groups to learn about the circularity of waste reduction, reusing items and recycling when another use is not available. We also talk about native plants and the significance of local wildlife we have in the county. Our Eastern Kingsnake, ReRe, is always a popular part of our presentation. We also lead eagle tours at the landfill upon request year-round.

 Georgetown SC Gazette:

I understand you have big plans to enhance the Nature Education Center. Please tell me more about those.

Maureen Mulligan:

Yes, we sustained some storm damage a few years ago, but the county has been able to repair the building, so it is safe to host groups again.  We collaborated with Anne Fullenkamp of the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh to develop a design concept to make the center more interactive, providing visitors with hands-on learning experiences. Dividing the open space into a series of zones on proper solid waste management and the roles we each play in increasing sustainability and maintaining our quality of life.

We are now in the process of working on additional grant funding to help with phase 2 of that project. That will take the conceptual information from phase 1 and really put a cohesive construction plan together for the site.

Georgetown SC Gazette:

What are some of the biggest challenges or misconceptions people have about recycling?

Maureen Mulligan:

Many times, I hear residents ask why our programs are not on par with other areas, like Horry County. Of course, they have almost 400,000 people living in Horry County compared to our nearly 66,000 in Georgetown County, so their tax base is significantly larger.  Our landfill and facilities are older and in need of some upgrades. We also haven’t changed the household solid waste fees charged here since 2007. So funding is a challenge.

However, we do have a 38 percent recycling rate*, which is very good.  The state average is only about 23.5 percent, and Horry has a 29 percent recycling rate. We do recycle a wide range of common residential materials, from glass bottles and jars to Number 1 and 2 plastics, cardboard, aluminum and steel cans, newspaper and magazines, tires, used motor oil, household electronics, and cooking oil. We also collect dry plastic film (including single-use plastic bags, Ziploc bags, bubble wrap, bread bags, etc.) at all 15 convenience centers located throughout the county. Those bags are converted into plastic decking material.

We do make revenue from our recycling collections so it’s important that residents continue to separate these items from their regular trash.  We have a convenient Recycling Handbook on our website that shares more details about the do’s and don’ts of our recycling programs for residents and businesses. It also provides the location and operating hours for our convenience centers and swap shops. It’s a great resource for every county resident.

If you’re a teacher or organization who would like to have Maureen come speak to your class or members or want to schedule a visit to the landfill or Environmental Education Center, simply reach out to her by email [email protected] or call 843.545.3452.

*Based on  SC Solid Waste Management Annual Report FY2025